April 6, 2011 posts

Business / Economic / Financial

[ This link to a somewhat more cumulative blog posts page will precede current days news since most all topics remain current in terms of impact and longer-term effect and can be searched by topical index term more easily. The same is provided since the blog site http://alpeiablog.blogspot.com has just been censored as to size by google which is typical for google as nsa / cia / gov’t shill as more are becoming aware of. The same is true for microsoft, another co. that’s seen their best days and relies on the government to maintain their monopoly. Up to now the better page http://www.scribd.com/alpeia is provided for ease of formatting and clarity thereby while the Washington Post page is the real deal but without formatting http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- srv/community/mypost/index.html?plckPersonaPage=PersonaComments&plckUserId=alpeia&newspaperUserId=alpeia (Only up to 3-11-11-you must be logged in - (Washington Post) [ Comments COMMENTS ARE CLOSED WHILE WE UPGRADE OUR SYSTEMS ] the comments are no longer archived on their site ) . The following is the cumulative archive of blog posts / topics for 2010 as the new year starts anew (and archived by quarter): http://albertpeia.com/December312010postsarchive.htm or PDF formatted version
http://albertpeia.com/December312010postsarchive.pdf ]

Obama says shutdown would be ‘inexcusable’ (Washington Post) [ What is totally inexcusable is 'wobama the b' (for b*** s***) continuing in the office of the Presidency. He is an abject failure and a total fraud. He should be impeached and removed from office. Time for clichéd, stereotypical, 'mr. for a nickel he will' to go! Drudgereport: Obama: 'I Remember What It Was Like To Pump Gas'...
Get used to high prices...
GOP lawyer circulating wobama impeachment article on Hill...

Constitutional Problems with the Libyan War Ron Paul | The costs of this terrible mistake cannot be ignored. Obama Raises American Hypocrisy To A Higher Level 10 Reasons Obama is Just As Bad or Worse Than Bush Activist Post April 5, 2011 George W. Bush was clearly a mentally-challenged puppet of the military/banking/oil elite. The policies put it in place at breakneck speed after 9/11 were provably predetermined by think tanks well in advance... but there was a noticeable in-your-face quickening of corporate-government tyranny under Bush.

These policies like wars of aggression, illegal surveillance of Americans, torture of detainees indefinitely held without formal charges, unfair “free trade” agreements, and bank bailouts ... these policies accelerated under Obama, even more of the draconian playbook is unfolding.

After 8 years of Bush’s reign that ended with a record low presidential approval rating in the low 20s, Obama’s promise of hope and change ...Although policies being implemented under Obama’s leadership exhibit the continuation of Bush’s tyrannical agenda, his stunning betrayal of populist and Constitutional principles in support of these actions makes him the ultimate hypocrite...

There have been many articles written about Obama’s unkept promises and outright lies, but here are 10 actions that prove Obama is just as bad if not worse than Bush:

1) Bank/Corporate Bailouts...

2) Betrayal of the Poor...

3) Expansion of Free Trade: Obama excoriated NAFTA, GATT and other so-called “Free Trade” agreements that were put in place under Clinton and Bush (with CAFTA)...These free trade agreements are designed to only help the multinational corporations who wrote them, and who Obama now works for. In contrast to being “opposed” to such agreements, the government moves forward with many new similar agreements.

4) Escalating Wars of Aggression...

5)Internet Rights Eroding...

6) Finally, the DHS has been arbitrarily seizing domain names, which is clearly unconstitutional. Given that Obama is completely in bed with Google and others in the corporate information cartel, you can bet he will show his support for these endeavors even if only by remaining silent as they are debated then implemented.

7) Free Speech Restrictions...
8) Illegal Domestic Surveillance...

9) Rule of Law is Dead...
10) Obamacare Fascism...

]

After an evening meeting with congressional leaders at the White House, the president said the two sides are divided over “relatively narrow numbers.”

Constitutional Problems with the Libyan War Ron Paul | The costs of this terrible mistake cannot be ignored. Obama Raises American Hypocrisy To A Higher Level Paul Craig Roberts | Gadhafi is being demonized while Bush/Cheney/Obama are sitting on their high horse draped in cloaks of morality. Reuters: Obama Signs Secret Order Authorizing Covert CIA Support For Libyan Rebels Obama has signed secret order authorizing covert US govt support for rebel forces in Libya, officials tell Reuters. Poll: Obama’s approval hits new low President Barack Obama’s approval rating and prospects for reelection have plunged to all-time lows in a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. Americans worried about Libya conflict: poll A new poll published on Wednesday found nearly half of Americans were opposed to US military involvement in Libya, ]

Damage would increase with duration (Washington Post) [ But think of the longterm benefits for the nation and the world. Indeed, if only because 'wobama the b' (for b*** s***) was against the shutdown is reason enough to do exactly that, so failed a president and fatally flawed man and total fraud he is (although there are innumerable reasons for the shutdown). Talks to avert shutdown make no headway (Washington Post) [ The people are sayin' there's still hope as no way as in no headway is the right way. After all, the Dems are playin' political pretend here given the magnitude of defacto bankrupt america's insurmountable debt {GOP’s plan for 2012 budget comes in at $6.2 trillion less than Obama’s (Washington Post) Proposal represents GOP’s most comprehensive philosophical statement since midterm wins.(and then there's all that funny money)}. Davis ‘… This is how we pay off our current debts and I think bondholders are simply happy to get anything out of a country that admits it owes $15Tn (1/4 of global GDP) but probably owes closer to $60Tn (entire global GDP) in the form of unfunded liabilities. The funniest thing about this (and you have to laugh) is to see Conservative pundits get on TV and talk about how we need to cut $100Bn worth of discretionary spending to "fix" this (while continuing to spend $1Tn on the military and $1Tn on tax cuts for the top 1% each year). There is no fixing this and even a Republican said you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. THIS HOUSE OF CARDS IS TEETERING FOLKS – PLEASE BE CAREFUL OUT THERE! ‘ . With deadline near, spending accord is elusive (Washington Post) [ If only their spending was as elusive as accords. Oh, there's no question but that they really know how to spend your money at the further expense of children … yet, elusive in this context is a good thing as hope still remains … House GOP leaders turn to Dems for deal (Washington Post) [ Of Dees, Dems, Does, and Gops … Sounds like a plan … Not! … The people are still hoping, praying … will their dream come true? … Government shutdown looms-Paul Kane (Washington Post) [ Shutdown? ... One can only hope, and pray ... after all, they can't muck up what they're not in session to f*** up ... Government shutdown looms Paul Kane (Washington Post) ] ] After back-to-back meetings at White House and on the Hill, Obama and congressional leaders remain billions of dollars apart as the first federal government shutdown in more than 15 years draws closer. ] The economic effects of a government shutdown could be significant in the Washington region and nationally if the impasse continues for several weeks, some economists said.

Lawyer charged with insider trading (Washington Post) [ Come on! Just enough for a few headlines so people think they're actually doing something. They could (but don't) bring a case as this or other wall street crime against a different wall street liar (sic lawyer) / fraud in that corrupt sinkhole new york (metro, ie., jersey, conn., etc.) every single day and bearly touch the tip of the iceberg. Is anybody foolish enough to think what goes on there is legitimate? Remember, still no pros for the huge debacle / fraud precipitatin the last and continuing economic / financial crisis. Chemist charged with insider trading (WP) [ This remains incredulous to me. Everyone but the big boys / frauds! The frauds on wall street et als should be criminally prosecuted, jailed, fined, and disgorgement imposed. Dave's Daily 'If you can keep interest rates this low this long, its inevitable cheap financing can allow companies to start cobbling each other up. Further Ben's policies allow companies like IBM to sell bonds at 1% and buy back shares with the proceeds (total paper bubble-scam). POMO is occurring almost daily and Primary Dealers can buy back their shares and pay dividends with what essentially is taxpayer money-- … an especially great opportunity to sell / take profits while you still can since there's much worse to come! This is the grim economic reality [ http://albertpeia.com/grimreality.htm . Looking Like A Good Time To Sell Into Strength - Harding PRECHTER: We're Still In A Massive Bear Market And Stocks Will Crash To New Lows Davis ‘… This is how we pay off our current debts and I think bondholders are simply happy to get anything out of a country that admits it owes $15Tn (1/4 of global GDP) but probably owes closer to $60Tn (entire global GDP) in the form of unfunded liabilities. The funniest thing about this (and you have to laugh) is to see Conservative pundits get on TV and talk about how we need to cut $100Bn worth of discretionary spending to "fix" this (while continuing to spend $1Tn on the military and $1Tn on tax cuts for the top 1% each year). SEC: Wachovia cheated investors (WP) [ I truly can see decreasing the apple weighting, and increasing the oracle (open office, etc.), google (ubiquitous) weighting, but increasing dyingosaur microsoft weighting … I don't think so … something's gone awry here that smacks of desperation and an attempt to circumvent the visual effects on the nasdaq of a post-jobs apple, viz., over-priced apple sauce. Isn't that just like the frauds on wall street … to pad the nasdaq bubble based on a 1-stock story, and manipulate when that 1-stock story falls to earth! April Is a Good Time to Sell [ I quite agree … at the least a 'sell in May and go away', but 'don't be mentally ill, sell in April!' Adler ]

Gaming is an economic win (Washington Post)“Gold farmers” and other online workers in Asia are benefitting, according to a World Bank report. [ Well, I don't know about online, but offline certainly has been a big win for Wynn, Steve Wynn, who was 'chased' from mob infested jersey by mental case mobster trump et als. Drudgereport: [1] NBCWSJ POLL SHOCK: TRUMP #2 GOP [ NBC where t_rump has his Jerry Springer derivative shock-jock show and sinkhole new york's fraud street journal … poll? … Don't make me laugh … Milbank: Donald trumps CPAC (WP) [ Trump’s a loser, dressed up and propped up by and to shill for a declining, fallen nation in the most corrupt regions (ie., new york, jersey, etc.) of the country (every fallen nation has such); of that there is no question …"Over the years I've participated in many battles and have really almost come out very, very victorious every single time," the Donald said. (Except for the bankruptc[ies], that is. [ trump’s never won a battle that wasn’t fixed in advance (including the ‘pre-packaged bankrupcies’ crammed down the throats of objecting creditors – jersey general ] He also with his corrupt mob ilk 'chased' Steve Wynn out of jersey – Steve Wynn's doing extremely well in Macau and Vegas.) "I've beaten many people and companies, and I've won many wars," he added. (Though he didn't serve in the military.) "I have fairly [according to mobster rules; ie., bribery, money laundering, etc.] but intelligently [ as any other mob boss … trump is total b*** s***, a fraud, and lightweight … and, despite the façade, quite insecure … trump’s a total mental case … He truly is the ‘poster-boy’ of american decline and part of the problem, not the solution! …trump also said america’s become the laughingstock of the world … true enough … and trump the biggest joke … NEWS FLASH: Direct from Lost Angeles Learning Annex – Presenting mobster t_rump of new yoke, new joyzey, and now caleefornia mob fame with his continuing message for the past several years: buy real estate (and watch the values go down).
Bank sues Trump over Chicago tower loan...
Trump casino to miss interest payment...
trump’s fired (from ‘his own company’)

Gunfire Erupts Inside trump Taj Mahal Casino, 1 Dead - Second Such Incident In A Year At N.J. Mainstay Ends With Employee Killed

Trump luxury resort folds, leaving buyers defrauded…litigation has commenced…send for sister maryanne, the corrupt federal judge to preside, coverup, etc., she’s in n.y./n.j./pa 3rd circuit ct appeals, understands drug money laundering/fraud and handles her own motions to recuse her and like mobster trump should be in jail ... (see RICO Case)

http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/ricosummarytoFBIunderpenaltyofperjury.pdf http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/PeiavCoanetals.htm ] earned many billions of dollars [ at whose expense ], which in a sense was both a scorecard and acknowledgment of my abilities [ to fool most of the people, all of the time. ] ." TRUMP DRAWS CHEERS, BOOS AT CONSERVATIVE CONFERENCE...
PONDERING PRESIDENTIAL RUN... [Don’t make me laugh! … Donald T_rump Would Impose 25% Tax on China Imports if President [ trump also said america’s become the laughingstock of the world … true enough … and trump the biggest joke … Indeed, that trump even posits the possibility of a run when he should be in jail is a testament to just how big a laughingstock pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america’s become! [ If he was mobster in chief, mobster and scoundrel trump wraps himself in populist american flag and offers up an (too little too late – typical lightweight) implausible solution to keep ‘the juice’ flowing though he’d already be in jail in a rational, non-declining nation with meaningful laws. All China has to do is dump (and not prospectively buy) their ever more and declining in value day-by-day (from dollar debasement policies) u.s. paper / bonds and overnight and the u.s. economy consequently thereby collapse. [ When you come right down to it, this has been america’s most significant export. Indeed, this irrevocable structural shift, hailed by cia men hw bush and clinton (clinton couldn’t have survived with them) by way of NAFTA as the greatest thing since sliced bread was indeed in no uncertain terms condemned and warned against by Perot, a man of honor who, unlike his opponents, could not be bought, which is the reason, in pervasively corrupt america, he could never have been elected. Interestingly, you may have noticed the good (but not great, other than the spotlight on pervasive bribery including judges, police, politicians, etc., being far too light) the film ‘The Untouchables’ getting a wide re-airing of late, purporting to be a significant part of american folklore / history / culture. However, the reality is that in america, and certainly today, the real story with impact is that of ‘The Touchables’. The reality is that Elliot Ness died a broken man; bankrupt, unable to even win election to the mayoralty of his then current hometown. He was incorruptible; and hence, in the real america, unelectable at the least if not also all but unemployable (he and his are among those few genetic anomalies in america as I’ve previously alluded to. How far america has fallen from even false perception! Pervasively corrupt, meaningfully lawless america can’t even fake it anymore. See, for example, http://albertpeia.com/CIAAgentAffidavit1.jpg http://albertpeia.com/FBIAgentAffidavit11.jpg , and of course, corrupt legal / judicial processes, etc., Defacto bankrupt, fraudulent america also spends more on offensive (defensive a misnomer / propaganda) military spending than all the nations of the world combined, and by a large margin at that. Do you see a pattern emerging here [ I unfortunately only belatedly did, and the feds, fed employees, cia, all 3 branches of the u.s. government, etc., are included in this evolved american trait of inherent criminality in the most nefarious sense … The pervasively corrupt american illegal system … corrupt u.s. courts / (lawyers) / judges: Their lifetime plush appointments should be abolished, which corrupt entities are unheard of in productive societies as China, Japan, etc.. Time to abolish these drags on society and eliminate their lifetime stipends and costly bureaucracies. Rules of law mean nothing to these typically corrupt americans. Most, including sam alito of the u.s. supreme court, concerning drug money laundering and obstruction of justice in the 3^rd circuit ( also maryanne trump barry who covered-up drug money laundering through her brother’s casinos in a civil RICO case) should have gone to or belong in jail. Contrary to popular belief, they do it for the money, personal money, big, cash, untraceable money. The fog of war is great for such things (360 tons $100 bills flown into Iraq and missing, etc.). [ http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/ricosummarytoFBIunderpenaltyofperjury.pdf http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/PeiavCoanetals.htm ]. america’s just a fraudulent and failed defacto bankrupt nation. ] “I would announce, without equivocation, a 25% tax increase on anything purchased from China.” ]
CHENEY HECKLED... 'DRAFTDOGER!' 'WHERE'S BIN LADEN?' ] ]

U.S. pledges money to jump-start peace program in Afghanistan (Washington Post) [ Well, there you go … peace in our time … now where's neville chamberlain's hologram when you need it … just make sure those hundred dollar bills to be flown in are untraceable and delivered directly to the 'peace profiteers' … seems we've heard this one before (Iraq-that 360 tons of missing $100 bills … didn't come close to ending that conflict but made a lot of 'peace profiteers' very wealthy at the taxpayers' / treasury's / nation's expense.) ... boy, that peace is comin' cheap … new war and all … the smart thing to do … that $50 mil will go far … riiiiight! … The Peace Program or stated another way, a piecw of the action program… Drudgereport: Obama: 'I Remember What It Was Like To Pump Gas'...
Get used to high prices...
GOP lawyer circulating wobama impeachment article on Hill...
Ryan: Debt On Track To Hit 800% Of GDP...
Oklahoma sees driest 4 months since Dust Bowl...
'CBO Can't Conceive of Any Way' Economy Can Continue Past 2037...[that's awfully optimistically close to if not beyond the 'decades at best scenario']...
REPORT: Saudis 'So Unhappy' With White House They Sent Emissaries to China, Russia Seeking Enhanced Ties...
Cash-Strapped NYC To Close 20 Fire Companies... ] A program to lure Taliban fighters from the battlefield is set to get $50 million.

Davis ‘… This is how we pay off our current debts and I think bondholders are simply happy to get anything out of a country that admits it owes $15Tn (1/4 of global GDP) but probably owes closer to $60Tn (entire global GDP) in the form of unfunded liabilities. The funniest thing about this (and you have to laugh) is to see Conservative pundits get on TV and talk about how we need to cut $100Bn worth of discretionary spending to "fix" this (while continuing to spend $1Tn on the military and $1Tn on tax cuts for the top 1% each year). There is no fixing this and even a Republican said you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. THIS HOUSE OF CARDS IS TEETERING FOLKS – PLEASE BE CAREFUL OUT THERE! ‘ .

Fed sees recovery on track (Washington Post) [ Yeah … that's indeed what THEY saw, as the blind no-recession fed took their hammer and saw ... or, by the new reality of things, their hammer and sickle … and, that increased asset inflation plan of theirs seems to be making headway (grains, meat, metals, oil, commodities, etc.) and when your loaf of bread's a cool $100, they'll claim victory. Of course, as planned, inflated stock prices are not immune from their 'plan' since all along was the plan within a 'plan' which is great for the churn-and-earn frauds on wall street though margins will begin to suffer even with the 'plan within the plan' which, of course, is not a plan at all but another scam, at best, and at worst, this 'no-recession' fed hasn't the slightest idea what (damage) they're doing. Wages not keeping pace with prices (WP) [ Yes , there is a substantial cost to 'no-recession, helicopter ben' b. s. bernanke's attempt at new age alchemy in trying to spin worthless currency / paper securities / toxic assets into gold for the sake of fraudulent wall street only; which of course, not only does not work, but invariably ends quite badly. The more recent your trip to the grocery store, gas station, etc., the more pronounced the evidence. There is no modern day alchemy that 'spins more paper into gold'. That value has to come from some place; viz., you! Chemist charged with insider trading (WP) [ This remains incredulous to me. Everyone but the big boys / frauds! The frauds on wall street et als should be criminally prosecuted, jailed, fined, and disgorgement imposed. M&A, Ben Resuscitate Bulls: Dave's Daily 'If you can keep interest rates this low this long, its inevitable cheap financing can allow companies to start cobbling each other up. Further Ben's policies allow companies like IBM to sell bonds at 1% and buy back shares with the proceeds (total paper bubble-scam). POMO is occurring almost daily and Primary Dealers can buy back their shares and pay dividends with what essentially is taxpayer money--nifty trick eh? With all the geopolitical and nuclear events going on little noticed was Fed "stress tests" of financial institutions to see if they were healthy enough to buy back shares and pay dividends. Making the matter sinister and less transparent is their gag order on the entire process. The Fed also has some toxic waste they'd like to sell you… Come on! What total b*** s***! … an especially great opportunity to sell / take profits while you still can since there's much worse to come! Fed to hold regular news conferences (WP) [ Wow! Just what everyone needed - more spoon-fed b*** s*** . This is the grim economic reality [ http://albertpeia.com/grimreality.htm ]. Looking Like A Good Time To Sell Into Strength - Harding BOB PRECHTER: We're Still In A Massive Bear Market And Stocks Will Crash To New Lows Talks to avert shutdown make no headway (Washington Post) [ The people are sayin' there's still hope as no way as in no headway is the right way. After all, the Dems are playin' political pretend here given the magnitude of defacto bankrupt america's insurmountable debt {GOP’s plan for 2012 budget comes in at $6.2 trillion less than Obama’s (Washington Post) Proposal represents GOP’s most comprehensive philosophical statement since midterm wins.(and then there's all that funny money)}. Davis ‘… This is how we pay off our current debts and I think bondholders are simply happy to get anything out of a country that admits it owes $15Tn (1/4 of global GDP) but probably owes closer to $60Tn (entire global GDP) in the form of unfunded liabilities. The funniest thing about this (and you have to laugh) is to see Conservative pundits get on TV and talk about how we need to cut $100Bn worth of discretionary spending to "fix" this (while continuing to spend $1Tn on the military and $1Tn on tax cuts for the top 1% each year). There is no fixing this and even a Republican said you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. THIS HOUSE OF CARDS IS TEETERING FOLKS – PLEASE BE CAREFUL OUT THERE! ‘ . SEC: Wachovia cheated investors (Washington Post) [ Excuse me for sounding a bit sarcastic but is that not SOP, viz., standard operating procedure on fraudulent and certainly ubiquitous through the last crash and even now? This latest nasdaq stunt takes the cake: Top 3 Reasons were Flat While Gold Set Another Record [ I truly can see decreasing the apple weighting, and increasing the oracle (open office, etc.), google (ubiquitous) weighting, but increasing dyingosaur microsoft weighting … I don't think so … something's gone awry here that smacks of desperation and an attempt to circumvent the visual effects on the nasdaq of a post-jobs apple, viz., over-priced apple sauce. Isn't that just like the frauds on wall street … to pad the nasdaq bubble based on a 1-stock story, and manipulate when that 1-stock story falls to earth! April Is a Good Time to Sell [ I quite agree … overvalued to the hilt in this new manipulated bubble … at the least a 'sell in May and go away', but 'don't be mentally ill, sell in April!' ] Adler 'Both banks and foreign central banks [FCB] have normal buying cycles, and last week’s evidence suggests that both are just past the peak of those cycles. In addition, because of Japan’s predicament, FCB buying is for the foreseeable future, likely to be well below the necessary levels to keep levitating stocks. Add to that, the loss of the 2 month long, $25 billion weekly stipend from the Treasury on March 24, and we have the conditions for a rough patch.

With less help from the Treasury, the banks, and FCBs, the Fed would have its hands full keeping all its balls in the air. Some would be likely to hit the ground, but not this month. That’s because of the light Treasury supply that I covered in the Treasury update. That makes the job much easier this month, even without the banks and the FCBs.This week is one of those easy weeks, with lots of Fed pumping and no new Treasury supply ...

The evidence shows that banks are again out of the Treasury buying game. It also shows that they lost money in the first quarter, which is insane considering that their cost of funds is zero. It’s an indication of just how dire the circumstances are. Banks continue to accumulate cash at a frantic rate in their accounts at the Fed. The last time reserves rose this fast was in the midst of the crisis in 2008.
...These elements essentially neutralize the Fed’s pumping. ..

In the meantime I would not wait to "sell in May and go away." April looks like a good time to scale out of all equity longs, including in particular broad based ETFs, like SPY (SPY), DIA (DIA), QQQ (QQQ), and IWM (IWM). Aggressive traders and hedgers can use strength to establish short positions probably around mid-month and after ...' ]

Bad News for Cisco is Good: Dave's Daily 'This is the Alice in Wonderland world we live in. Cisco CEO John Chambers admits that all is not well ("we suck!") and investors bid the stock up 5%. Maybe the thinking is his confession will force his ouster. Maybe investors will think a government shutdown is a good thing since that's one way to cut spending. Across the pond, Portugal is bust (another bad news item) but the euro and stocks rally. Elsewhere Fed Governor Lockhart stated he didn't see any reason to abandon "QE2" early or raise interest rates before the end of the year. Was that bad or good news? The best news item of the day came from part one of a David Stockman op-ed calling out "Crony Capitalism" as our major problem. It's a great read and the conclusions within will ring true for many people...'

Slowing Global Economy With Downside Risk Roche 'Danske Bank, which has been very bullish in recent years, is joining the chorus of banks becoming increasingly concerned about a global slowdown. In a recent note they discussed their macro outlook and where they see the risks to the downside:

Summary and outlook

Global leading indicators are showing signs of weakening, but they are still at comfortable levels. US ISM declined modestly from a very high level in March. Likewise, European PMIs still look good, but survey expectations point towards a slowdown in growth. In China the slowdown seems to have taken hold.

We expect the majority of the leading indicators to decline to less expansive levels in the coming months, but to remain at decent levels. However, several factors could temporarily speed up the decline. Rising oil prices, caused by the Middle East turmoil, lead to rising production costs and reduced purchasing power. The disaster in Japan hampers Japanese production and could also disrupt global supply chains. Finally, the recent slowdown in China reduces demand growth from Asia.

Details

Global PMI new orders have dropped to 55 from the peak last month at 60. This is the first drop since September 2010, confirming the expected slowdown in growth.

In the US, ISM declined moderately from 61.4 to 61.2, but the new orders index took a dive indicating further corrections in the coming months. Hence we expect ISM to continue to decline.

In Euroland PMIs generally sent a positive signal, with Germany being the driving force. However, here as well, we expect to see adjustments in the coming months. Scandi leading indicators are somewhat less positive, but generally point to decent growth rates, yet Denmark is still trailing the rest of the region.

Asia has been sending less upbeat signals lately. Chinese manufacturing PMI dropped also in March, indicating slowing growth. Other Asian PMIs are starting to point in the same direction. CEE PMIs have started to show some signs of moderation as well, but we continue to believe in healthy growth rates over the coming months. Similarly in Brazil PMI has lost its recent momentum.

click to enlarge http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/4/6/saupload_danske.png '

U.S. Equities Stall: Short Exposure Is Best Karnik [ I have a few difficulties with 'Karnak' here since he correctly sets forth reasons for lower equities; yet he's long SPY (though in his article he seems to distinguish already ultra short S & P plays which might bounce to cover). ]

Short-Term, High-Probability Mean-Reversion Strategy: ETFs Hit a Short-Term Extreme Crowder 'After marching higher for most of the day, the major market indices came back near the closing bell to close Tuesday basically flat.

We have seen several days of range bound trading, and I expect to see a violent move outside of the range when it inevitably occurs.

Given the extreme short-term overbought state in most of the ETFs I follow for my ETF/Options strategy, I expect to see a short-term reprieve over the coming days.

Because of the extreme overbought nature of the ETFs, I still have both of my positions on. I will take them both off once we get back to neutral territory.

Until then, I will sit back and patiently wait for the trade. This type of price action has happened before and it will happen again. However, if we look at the history of the strategy each time this has occurred we have seen profitable days ahead. I expect that history will repeat itself once again. Of course, as we all know, there are no guarantees in trading so always consider risk management mostly through position-sizing with each and every trade. This is a must for every trader and one that will make you a successful trader over the long-term. Remember, this is a marathon and not a sprint.

Short-Term High-Probability, Mean-Reversion Indicator – as of close 4/04/11

click to enlarge http://static.seekingalpha.com/uploads/2011/4/6/saupload_4_5_11_hpmr.png

Disclosure: I am short IWM, SPY.'

Ryan: Debt on Track to Hit 800 Percent of GDP CNSNews.com | Ryan said House Republicans’ FY2012 budget would save Medicare and help the United States avoid a debt crisis.

Gold hits new record Gold hit a record high on Wednesday while oil and corn were just off peaks struck this week as commodity prices fuel rising inflation that governments worldwide are struggling to contain.

VIDEO: Ron Paul Speaks On The Budget Congressman Paul discusses budget issues with Dylan Ratigan.

Libya war costs $4 million a day: US Air Force The war in Libya is costing the US Air Force $4 million a day but the cost likely will drop now that American fighter jets pulled out of the operation, the air force secretary said Tuesday.

Analysts Backing Gold All the Way to $1,500 Market watchers are calling for gold prices to hit $1,500 an ounce in the next three months, as the precious metal continues chugging ahead on a two-and-a-half-year run that has coincided with the beginning of the financial crisis.

Banksters Raped A Blindfolded America All societies have social and moral deviants, but in healthy ones they are not in control of the government and large financial banks as they are in America, Canada, England, and other Western countries.

(4-6-11) Dow 12,427 +33 Nasdaq 2,799 +8 S&P 500 1,335 +2 [CLOSE- OIL $108.60 (-54% for year 2008) (RECORD TRADING HIGH $147.27) GAS $3.65 (reg. gas in LAND OF FRUITS AND NUTS $4.05 REG./ $4.10 MID-GRADE/ $4.20 PREM./ $4.27 DIESEL) / GOLD $1,456 (+24% for year 2009) / SILVER $39.38 (+47% for year 2009) PLATINUM $1,792 (+56% for year 2009) Metal News for the Day / DOLLAR= .69 EURO, 85 YEN, .60 POUND STERLING, ETC. (How low can you go - LOWER)/ Interest Rates: http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/interest-rates/Pages/TextView.aspx?data=yield 10 YR NOTE YIELD 3.55% …..… AP Business Highlights ...Yahoo Market Update... T. Rowe Price Weekly Recap – Stocks / Bonds / Currencies - Domestic / International This Is a Secular Bear Market and The End of Buy and Hold … and Hope MARKET MANIPULATION AND HOW THE LATEST BUBBLE-FRAUD PRE-COMING CRASH IS BEING ACCOMPLISHED 3-11-10 The bull market that never was/were beyond wall street b.s. when measured in gold Property Values Projected to Fall 12% in 2010 Jan 31, 2010 THE COMING MARKET CRASH / CORRECTION 1-28-10 Maierhofer (01-15-10) 11 Clear Signs Economy Sinking Economic Black Hole 1-22-10: 20 Reasons Why The U.S. Economy Is Dying And Is Simply Not Going To Recover 1-7-10 Crash is coming! ‘WORST ECONOMIC COLLAPSE EVER’ Must Read Economic / Financial Data This Depression is just beginning The coming depression… thecomingdepression.net The Next Wave of Collapse is Coming Sooner than you think Sliding Back Into the Great Depression ABSOLUTELY, ABSURDLY, RIDICULOUS! SELL / TAKE PROFITS WHILE YOU CAN SINCE MUCH, MUCH WORSE TO COME!

National / World

Alex Jones: Revolt Against the NWO Banksters Expanding Worldwide RT | Max Keiser talks to Alex Jones about food stamps and financial terror.

Lindsey Williams: Arab Monarchies To Be Overthrown Infowars | Alex talks with Lindsey Williams about rising oil prices and the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East.

Congressman Ron Paul: One Worlders Will Fall Steve Watson | Paul sends a stark message to ruling elite “internationalists” attempting to expand globalism.

Glenn Beck Makes It Official: He Will Depart Fox News Kurt Nimmo | Fox and Beck have released a statement announcing the departure.

Spread the Truth with the New Infowars Widget Infowars.com | You can now easily spread the truth by embedding a player of the Alex Jones Show on your blog and website.

Ron Paul: ‘New World Order’ Using Financial Crisis, Wars To Enhance Globalism Congressman Ron Paul, icon to liberty lovers the world over, sent a stark message to ruling elite “internationalists” attempting to expand globalism via the Western military industrial complex this week – you will fail.

Alex Jones: Revolt Against the NWO Banksters Expanding Worldwide Max Keiser talks to Alex Jones about food stamps and financial terror on the Keiser Report.

Glenn Beck Makes It Official: He Will Depart Fox News Glenn Beck has finally put an end to the rumor that his popular television show will cease to be broadcast on the Fox News Network. Beck and Fox jointly announced his departure in a statement today, according to the New York Times.

Ron Paul to Announce Presidential Bid Next Month Appearing on the Alex Jones Show today, Texas Rep. Ron Paul said he will make a final decision within a month on whether he will run for president in the 2012 election.

Ron Paul: The ‘Big Event’ Has Started Skyrocketing gold, silver, oil and other commodity prices, a brazen attempt by the Federal Reserve to monetize a staggering and deleterious debt, a precipitously falling dollar, creeping inflation – these are elements of a “big event,” Ron Paul told Alex Jones on Tuesday.

Washington Post and CBS receiving money from Obamacare slush fund Two mainstream news organizations are receiving hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars from Obamacare’s Early Retiree Reinsurance Program.

Gaddafi asks Obama to end air war Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has sent a message to U.S. President Barack Obama “following the withdrawal of America from the crusader colonial alliance against Libya,” Libya’s official news agency JANA said on Wednesday.

U.S. Sees Array of New Threats at Japan’s Nuclear Plant United States government engineers sent to help with the crisis in Japan are warning that the troubled nuclear plant there is facing a wide array of fresh threats that could persist indefinitely.

NRC says not clear that Japan reactor has melted vessel A top official from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Wednesday it was not clear that Japan’s Fukushima No. 2 nuclear reactor has melted through thereactor pressure vessel.

US Senate defeats bill hitting Obama on Libya The US Senate on Tuesday easily swept aside a symbolic but politically potent measure declaring that President Barack Obama’s decision to intervene militarily in Libya violated the US Constitution.

Defense Secretary Gates arrives in Saudi Arabia for meeting with King Abdullah RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for a meeting with King Abdullah, opening his third trip to the tumultuous region in the past month.

K Street’s favorite dictators Popular revolutions swept away autocratic leaders in Tunisia and Egypt. The US and NATO launched airstrikes in Libya under a “responsibility to protect” civilians. But for decades the same dictators clung to power with US support.

TEPCO to inject nitrogen into No. 1 reactor to prevent explosion

America and EU Agree: Raise Radiation Levels for Food No congressional approval is legally needed to makes such changes, because the EPA is a regulatory agency that sets “policy” and, although these types of agencies can be directed by congress or the president, they often form their own policies.

Media is wrong on the dangers of radiation Radiation is now being detected in Russia, imagine what it must be like for the poor Japanese who live within 500 miles. Japan is not that big of a place, though it is a land of big people who have made some huge mistakes. Almost all supporters of the nuclear industry have run for cover but today we see one being sneaked out or savagely used.

Drudgereport: Obama: 'I Remember What It Was Like To Pump Gas'...
Get used to high prices...
GOP lawyer circulating wobama impeachment article on Hill...
Ryan: Debt On Track To Hit 800% Of GDP...
Oklahoma sees driest 4 months since Dust Bowl...
'CBO Can't Conceive of Any Way' Economy Can Continue Past 2037...[that's awfully optimistically close to if not beyond the 'decades at best scenario']...
REPORT: Saudis 'So Unhappy' With White House They Sent Emissaries to China, Russia Seeking Enhanced Ties...
Cash-Strapped NYC To Close 20 Fire Companies...
NBCWSJ POLL SHOCK: TRUMP #2 GOP [ NBC where t_rump has his Jerry Springer derivative shock-jock show and sinkhole new york's fraud street journal … poll? … Don't make me laugh … Milbank: Donald trumps CPAC | Gibbs gone (Washington Post) [ Trump’s a loser, dressed up and propped up by and to shill for a declining, fallen nation in the most corrupt regions (ie., new york, jersey, etc.) of the country (every fallen nation has such); of that there is no question …"Over the years I've participated in many battles and have really almost come out very, very victorious every single time," the Donald said. (Except for the bankruptc[ies], that is. [ trump’s never won a battle that wasn’t fixed in advance (including the ‘pre-packaged bankrupcies’ crammed down the throats of objecting creditors – jersey general ] He also with his corrupt mob ilk 'chased' Steve Wynn out of jersey – Steve Wynn's doing extremely well in Macau and Vegas.) "I've beaten many people and companies, and I've won many wars," he added. (Though he didn't serve in the military.) "I have fairly [according to mobster rules; ie., bribery, money laundering, etc.] but intelligently [ as any other mob boss … trump is total b*** s***, a fraud, and lightweight … and, despite the façade, quite insecure … trump’s a total mental case … He truly is the ‘poster-boy’ of american decline and part of the problem, not the solution! …trump also said america’s become the laughingstock of the world … true enough … and trump the biggest joke … NEWS FLASH: Direct from Lost Angeles Learning Annex – Presenting mobster t_rump of new yoke, new joyzey, and now caleefornia mob fame with his continuing message for the past several years: buy real estate (and watch the values go down…..riiiiight!).
Bank sues Trump over Chicago tower loan...
Trump casino to miss interest payment...
trump’s fired (from ‘his own company’)

Gunfire Erupts Inside trump Taj Mahal Casino, 1 Dead - Second Such Incident In A Year At N.J. Mainstay Ends With Employee Killed – What else would you you expect from a mobster’s casino in mob-infested jersey!

Trump luxury resort folds, leaving buyers defrauded…litigation has commenced…send for sister maryanne, the corrupt federal judge to preside, coverup, etc., she’s in n.y./n.j./pa 3rd circuit ct appeals, understands drug money laundering/fraud and handles her own motions to recuse her and like mobster trump should be in jail ... (see RICO Case)

] earned many billions of dollars [ at whose expense ], which in a sense was both a scorecard and acknowledgment of my abilities [ to fool most of the people, all of the time. ] ." TRUMP DRAWS CHEERS, BOOS AT CONSERVATIVE CONFERENCE...
PONDERING PRESIDENTIAL RUN... [Don’t make me laugh! … Donald T_rump Would Impose 25% Tax on China Imports if President [ trump also said america’s become the laughingstock of the world … true enough … and trump the biggest joke … Indeed, that trump even posits the possibility of a run when he should be in jail is a testament to just how big a laughingstock pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america’s become! [ If he was mobster in chief, mobster and scoundrel trump wraps himself in populist american flag and offers up an (too little too late – typical lightweight) implausible solution to keep ‘the juice’ flowing though he’d already be in jail in a rational, non-declining nation with meaningful laws. All China has to do is dump (and not prospectively buy) their ever more and declining in value day-by-day (from dollar debasement policies) u.s. paper / bonds and overnight and the u.s. economy consequently thereby collapse. [ When you come right down to it, this has been america’s most significant export. Indeed, this irrevocable structural shift, hailed by cia men hw bush and clinton (clinton couldn’t have survived with them) by way of NAFTA as the greatest thing since sliced bread was indeed in no uncertain terms condemned and warned against by Perot, a man of honor who, unlike his opponents, could not be bought, which is the reason, in pervasively corrupt america, he could never have been elected. Interestingly, you may have noticed the good (but not great, other than the spotlight on pervasive bribery including judges, police, politicians, etc., being far too light) the film ‘The Untouchables’ getting a wide re-airing of late, purporting to be a significant part of american folklore / history / culture. However, the reality is that in america, and certainly today, the real story with impact is that of ‘The Touchables’. The reality is that Elliot Ness died a broken man; bankrupt, unable to even win election to the mayoralty of his then current hometown. He was incorruptible; and hence, in the real america, unelectable at the least if not also all but unemployable (he and his are among those few genetic anomalies in america as I’ve previously alluded to. How far america has fallen from even false perception! Pervasively corrupt, meaningfully lawless america can’t even fake it anymore. See, for example, http://albertpeia.com/CIAAgentAffidavit1.jpg http://albertpeia.com/FBIAgentAffidavit11.jpg , and of course, corrupt legal / judicial processes, etc., Defacto bankrupt, fraudulent america also spends more on offensive (defensive a misnomer / propaganda) military spending than all the nations of the world combined, and by a large margin at that. Do you see a pattern emerging here [ I unfortunately only belatedly did, and the feds, fed employees, cia, all 3 branches of the u.s. government, etc., are included in this evolved american trait of inherent criminality in the most nefarious sense … The pervasively corrupt american illegal system … corrupt u.s. courts / (lawyers) / judges: Their lifetime plush appointments should be abolished, which corrupt entities are unheard of in productive societies as China, Japan, etc.. Time to abolish these drags on society and eliminate their lifetime stipends and costly bureaucracies. Rules of law mean nothing to these typically corrupt americans. Most, including sam alito of the u.s. supreme court, concerning drug money laundering and obstruction of justice in the 3^rd circuit ( also maryanne trump barry who covered-up drug money laundering through her brother’s casinos in a civil RICO case) should have gone to or belong in jail. Contrary to popular belief, they do it for the money, personal money, big, cash, untraceable money. The fog of war is great for such things (360 tons $100 bills flown into Iraq and missing, etc.). [ http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/ricosummarytoFBIunderpenaltyofperjury.pdf http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/PeiavCoanetals.htm ]. america’s just a fraudulent and failed defacto bankrupt nation. ] “I would announce, without equivocation, a 25% tax increase on anything purchased from China.” ]
CHENEY HECKLED... 'DRAFTDOGER!' 'WHERE'S BIN LADEN?' ]

Talks to avert shutdown make no headway (Washington Post) [ The people are sayin' there's still hope as no way as in no headway is the right way. After all, the Dems are playin' political pretend here given the magnitude of defacto bankrupt america's insurmountable debt {GOP’s plan for 2012 budget comes in at $6.2 trillion less than Obama’s (Washington Post) Proposal represents GOP’s most comprehensive philosophical statement since midterm wins.

(and then there's all that funny money)}. Davis ‘… This is how we pay off our current debts and I think bondholders are simply happy to get anything out of a country that admits it owes $15Tn (1/4 of global GDP) but probably owes closer to $60Tn (entire global GDP) in the form of unfunded liabilities. The funniest thing about this (and you have to laugh) is to see Conservative pundits get on TV and talk about how we need to cut $100Bn worth of discretionary spending to "fix" this (while continuing to spend $1Tn on the military and $1Tn on tax cuts for the top 1% each year). There is no fixing this and even a Republican said you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. THIS HOUSE OF CARDS IS TEETERING FOLKS – PLEASE BE CAREFUL OUT THERE! ‘ . With deadline near, spending accord is elusive (Washington Post) [ If only their spending was as elusive as accords. Oh, there's no question but that they really know how to spend your money at the further expense of children … yet, elusive in this context is a good thing as hope still remains … House GOP leaders turn to Dems for deal (Washington Post) [ Of Dees, Dems, Does, and Gops … Sounds like a plan … Not! … The people are still hoping, praying … will their dream come true? … Government shutdown looms-Paul Kane (Washington Post) [ Shutdown? ... One can only hope, and pray ... after all, they can't muck up what they're not in session to f*** up ... Government shutdown looms Paul Kane (Washington Post) ] ] After back-to-back meetings at White House and on the Hill, Obama and congressional leaders remain billions of dollars apart as the first federal government shutdown in more than 15 years draws closer.

Hoping for one state, preparing for two (Washington Post) [ Well, there's a plan that comports with the worst suspicions; that this new-found west / nato / american debacle was all about oil after all … the oil half of the nation, and the non-oil half of the nation (they can keep that non-oil half) … riiiiight! … that non-transparent transparency has been lifted. Libyan rebels gain backing (Washington Post) [ Well there you go … it's all over but the shoutin'! … Riiiiight!Libya is a Continuation of Neocon War to Remake Middle East [ Come on! They're muddling along, debt ridden, incompetent, declining, failing, almost to a nation, individually and collectively. Trying to still appear relevant, more important are the nations absent from their war crimes folly (excepting israel for which these treasury depleting fiascos in the name of zionism continue down this path of self-defeat / self-destruction) ] Secret Illegal War Of Aggression Has Been Raging In Libya For Weeks Watson | US and British spies have been coordinating war for oil for some time. Rebels in ‘tactical’ retreat as leaders meet (WP) [ Tactical … riiiiight! Well, that sounds like a plan … right out of the manuals on trench warfare from WWI … works every time … you know, those manual tactics … meanwhile, back at the other american induced wartime disasters ... ] Italy became the third country to recognize the opposition as the legitimate government...

Drudgereport: Libyan Rebels: 'NATO Is Now Our Problem'...
...asset freeze on Gaddafi regime 'hurting opposition'
Europe feels strain as US alters Libya policy...
Air Force spending $4 million a day on war...
NATO running short on of jets... ]. As progress on the battlefield stalls, the rebel-held area of eastern Libya is settling into its status as a de facto separate state.

Fed sees recovery on track (Washington Post) [ Yeah … that's indeed what THEY saw, as the blind no-recession fed took their hammer and saw ... or, by the new reality of things, their hammer and sickle … and, that increased asset inflation plan of theirs seems to be making headway (grains, meat, metals, oil, commodities, etc.) and when your loaf of bread's a cool $100, they'll claim victory. Of course, as planned, inflated stock prices are not immune from their 'plan' since all along was the plan within a 'plan' which is great for the churn-and-earn frauds on wall street though margins will begin to suffer even with the 'plan within the plan' which, of course, is not a plan at all but another scam, at best, and at worst, this 'no-recession' fed hasn't the slightest idea what (damage) they're doing. Wages not keeping pace with prices (WP) [ Yes , there is a substantial cost to 'no-recession, helicopter ben' b. s. bernanke's attempt at new age alchemy in trying to spin worthless currency / paper securities / toxic assets into gold for the sake of fraudulent wall street only; which of course, not only does not work, but invariably ends quite badly. The more recent your trip to the grocery store, gas station, etc., the more pronounced the evidence. There is no modern day alchemy that 'spins more paper into gold'. That value has to come from some place; viz., you! Chemist charged with insider trading (WP) [ This remains incredulous to me. Everyone but the big boys / frauds! The frauds on wall street et als should be criminally prosecuted, jailed, fined, and disgorgement imposed. M&A, Ben Resuscitate Bulls: Dave's Daily 'If you can keep interest rates this low this long, its inevitable cheap financing can allow companies to start cobbling each other up. Further Ben's policies allow companies like IBM to sell bonds at 1% and buy back shares with the proceeds (total paper bubble-scam). POMO is occurring almost daily and Primary Dealers can buy back their shares and pay dividends with what essentially is taxpayer money--nifty trick eh? With all the geopolitical and nuclear events going on little noticed was Fed "stress tests" of financial institutions to see if they were healthy enough to buy back shares and pay dividends. Making the matter sinister and less transparent is their gag order on the entire process. The Fed also has some toxic waste they'd like to sell you… Come on! What total b*** s***! … an especially great opportunity to sell / take profits while you still can since there's much worse to come! Fed to hold regular news conferences (WP) [ Wow! Just what everyone needed - more spoon-fed b*** s*** . This is the grim economic reality [ http://albertpeia.com/grimreality.htm ]. Looking Like A Good Time To Sell Into Strength - Harding BOB PRECHTER: We're Still In A Massive Bear Market And Stocks Will Crash To New Lows ]

SEC: Wachovia cheated investors (Washington Post) [ Excuse me for sounding a bit sarcastic but is that not SOP, viz., standard operating procedure on fraudulent and certainly ubiquitous through the last crash and even now? This latest nasdaq stunt takes the cake: Top 3 Reasons were Flat While Gold Set Another Record [ I truly can see decreasing the apple weighting, and increasing the oracle (open office, etc.), google (ubiquitous) weighting, but increasing dyingosaur microsoft weighting … I don't think so … something's gone awry here that smacks of desperation and an attempt to circumvent the visual effects on the nasdaq of a post-jobs apple, viz., over-priced apple sauce. Isn't that just like the frauds on wall street … to pad the nasdaq bubble based on a 1-stock story, and manipulate when that 1-stock story falls to earth! April Is a Good Time to Sell [ I quite agree … overvalued to the hilt in this new manipulated bubble … at the least a 'sell in May and go away', but 'don't be mentally ill, sell in April!' ] Adler 'Both banks and foreign central banks [FCB] have normal buying cycles, and last week’s evidence suggests that both are just past the peak of those cycles. In addition, because of Japan’s predicament, FCB buying is for the foreseeable future, likely to be well below the necessary levels to keep levitating stocks. Add to that, the loss of the 2 month long, $25 billion weekly stipend from the Treasury on March 24, and we have the conditions for a rough patch.

With less help from the Treasury, the banks, and FCBs, the Fed would have its hands full keeping all its balls in the air. Some would be likely to hit the ground, but not this month. That’s because of the light Treasury supply that I covered in the Treasury update. That makes the job much easier this month, even without the banks and the FCBs.

This week is one of those easy weeks, with lots of Fed pumping and no new Treasury supply ...

The evidence shows that banks are again out of the Treasury buying game. It also shows that they lost money in the first quarter, which is insane considering that their cost of funds is zero. It’s an indication of just how dire the circumstances are. Banks continue to accumulate cash at a frantic rate in their accounts at the Fed. The last time reserves rose this fast was in the midst of the crisis in 2008.
...

These elements essentially neutralize the Fed’s pumping. ..

In the meantime I would not wait to "sell in May and go away." April looks like a good time to scale out of all equity longs, including in particular broad based ETFs, like SPY (SPY), DIA (DIA), QQQ (QQQ), and IWM (IWM). Aggressive traders and hedgers can use strength to establish short positions probably around mid-month and after ...' ] Wachovia Capital Markets charged inflated markups on securities tied to home mortgages, regulators say.

Flood of phishing may follow breach (Washington Post) [ Well, I don't know about the breach, but going fishing in May sounds like a good idea … even April ...

April Is a Good Time to Sell [ I quite agree … overvalued to the hilt in this new manipulated bubble … at the least a 'sell in May and go away', but 'don't be mentally ill, sell in April!' ] Adler 'Both banks and foreign central banks [FCB] have normal buying cycles, and last week’s evidence suggests that both are just past the peak of those cycles. In addition, because of Japan’s predicament, FCB buying is for the foreseeable future, likely to be well below the necessary levels to keep levitating stocks. Add to that, the loss of the 2 month long, $25 billion weekly stipend from the Treasury on March 24, and we have the conditions for a rough patch.

With less help from the Treasury, the banks, and FCBs, the Fed would have its hands full keeping all its balls in the air. Some would be likely to hit the ground, but not this month. That’s because of the light Treasury supply that I covered in the Treasury update. That makes the job much easier this month, even without the banks and the FCBs.

This week is one of those easy weeks, with lots of Fed pumping and no new Treasury supply. That should be relentlessly bullish, but you sure wouldn’t know that from Monday’s action. There’s tremendous drag behind the scenes that is preventing the Fed’s pumping from having as much effect is it would otherwise.

The evidence shows that banks are again out of the Treasury buying game. It also shows that they lost money in the first quarter, which is insane considering that their cost of funds is zero. It’s an indication of just how dire the circumstances are. Banks continue to accumulate cash at a frantic rate in their accounts at the Fed. The last time reserves rose this fast was in the midst of the crisis in 2008.

Although the banks did buy some Treasuries in mid-March, they have again stopped buying, and have reduced their holdings, opting to hold cash at the Fed instead. The banks are pulling cash out of the system and depositing it in their reserve accounts even faster than the Fed is printing it, lately 60% faster. We have to wonder what has them so spooked.

At the same time, FCB purchases of Treasuries are also backsliding, and are well below the threshold where they need to be to keep the markets stable.

These elements essentially neutralize the Fed’s pumping ...

In the meantime I would not wait to "sell in May and go away." April looks like a good time to scale out of all equity longs, including in particular broad based ETFs, like SPY (SPY), DIA (DIA), QQQ (QQQ), and IWM (IWM). Aggressive traders and hedgers can use strength to establish short positions probably around mid-month and after ...'

Top 3 Reasons were Flat While Gold Set Another Record [ I truly can see decreasing the apple weighting, and increasing the oracle (open office, etc.), google (ubiquitous) weighting, but increasing dyingosaur microsoft weighting … I don't think so … something's gone awry here that smacks of desperation and an attempt to circumvent the visual effects on the nasdaq of a post-jobs apple, viz., over-priced apple sauce. Isn't that just like the frauds on wall street … to pad the nasdaq bubble based on a 1-stock story, and manipulate when that 1-stock story falls to earth! ] Wall Street Cheat Sheet 'On Tuesday April 5, 2011, Markets closed flat on Wall Street: DJI -0.05% SP500 -0.02% Nasdaq +0.07% Gold +1.37% Oil -0.45% . Markets went nowhere today … again. Today’s story was Gold (NYSE:GLD) setting new record highs. (See “Gold Bugs, Unite!“)

Today’s markets were flat because:

1) The US Services sector continues to expand. Although the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index came in below Wall Street expectation, 16 out of 17 sectors expanded. Check Out: Chart of the Day: US Services Sector Breathes, But Still Expanding.

2) The Nasdaq 100 (NASDAQ:QQQ) is rebalancing. It was bad news for Nasdaq OMX Group’s (NASDAQ:NDAQ) former love Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). Apple currently comprises 20.49% of the index, but will drop to 12.33%. However, other tech heavy-weights are cheering the move. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is increases its weighting to 8.3% from 3.41%, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) increases to 4.2% from 1.75%, Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) increases to 6.68% from 3.38%, and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) increases to 5.8%. That’s some nice wind on the back of new CEO Larry Page.

3) Bonus: Chipotle (NYSE:CMG) sets a new 52-week high. We recommended Chipotle to our Wall St. Cheat Sheet Investment Newsletter subscribers when it was trading at $140. Today it hit $280....'

April Is a Good Time to Sell [ I quite agree … overvalued to the hilt in this new manipulated bubble … at the least a 'sell in May and go away', but 'don't be mentally ill, sell in April!' ] Adler 'Both banks and foreign central banks [FCB] have normal buying cycles, and last week’s evidence suggests that both are just past the peak of those cycles. In addition, because of Japan’s predicament, FCB buying is for the foreseeable future, likely to be well below the necessary levels to keep levitating stocks. Add to that, the loss of the 2 month long, $25 billion weekly stipend from the Treasury on March 24, and we have the conditions for a rough patch.

With less help from the Treasury, the banks, and FCBs, the Fed would have its hands full keeping all its balls in the air. Some would be likely to hit the ground, but not this month. That’s because of the light Treasury supply that I covered in the Treasury update. That makes the job much easier this month, even without the banks and the FCBs.

This week is one of those easy weeks, with lots of Fed pumping and no new Treasury supply. That should be relentlessly bullish, but you sure wouldn’t know that from Monday’s action. There’s tremendous drag behind the scenes that is preventing the Fed’s pumping from having as much effect is it would otherwise.

The evidence shows that banks are again out of the Treasury buying game. It also shows that they lost money in the first quarter, which is insane considering that their cost of funds is zero. It’s an indication of just how dire the circumstances are. Banks continue to accumulate cash at a frantic rate in their accounts at the Fed. The last time reserves rose this fast was in the midst of the crisis in 2008.

Although the banks did buy some Treasuries in mid-March, they have again stopped buying, and have reduced their holdings, opting to hold cash at the Fed instead. The banks are pulling cash out of the system and depositing it in their reserve accounts even faster than the Fed is printing it, lately 60% faster. We have to wonder what has them so spooked.

At the same time, FCB purchases of Treasuries are also backsliding, and are well below the threshold where they need to be to keep the markets stable.

These elements essentially neutralize the Fed’s pumping. It may not be enough to send the markets lower, and in the absence of new Treasury supply, Fed buying should be enough to keep the field tilted in favor of higher prices. April’s bias should be to the upside, but the background drag will be there. Things will get tougher in May when Treasury supply increases, and really tough this summer when the Fed presumably will stop pumping. The question at that point is to what extent the banks and FCBs will be on the upside of their buying cycle, and will that alone be enough to prevent a selloff.

In the meantime I would not wait to "sell in May and go away." April looks like a good time to scale out of all equity longs, including in particular broad based ETFs, like SPY (SPY), DIA (DIA), QQQ (QQQ), and IWM (IWM). Aggressive traders and hedgers can use strength to establish short positions probably around mid-month and after ...'

Top 3 Reasons were Flat While Gold Set Another Record [ I truly can see decreasing the apple weighting, and increasing the oracle (open office, etc.), google (ubiquitous) weighting, but increasing dyingosaur microsoft weighting … I don't think so … something's gone awry here that smacks of desperation and an attempt to circumvent the visual effects on the nasdaq of a post-jobs apple, viz., over-priced apple sauce. Isn't that just like the frauds on wall street … to pad the nasdaq bubble based on a 1-stock story, and manipulate when that 1-stock story falls to earth! ] Wall Street Cheat Sheet 'On Tuesday April 5, 2011, Markets closed flat on Wall Street: DJI -0.05% SP500 -0.02% Nasdaq +0.07% Gold +1.37% Oil -0.45% . Markets went nowhere today … again. Today’s story was Gold (NYSE:GLD) setting new record highs. (See “Gold Bugs, Unite!“)

Today’s markets were flat because:

1) The US Services sector continues to expand. Although the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index came in below Wall Street expectation, 16 out of 17 sectors expanded. Check Out: Chart of the Day: US Services Sector Breathes, But Still Expanding.

2) The Nasdaq 100 (NASDAQ:QQQ) is rebalancing. It was bad news for Nasdaq OMX Group’s (NASDAQ:NDAQ) former love Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). Apple currently comprises 20.49% of the index, but will drop to 12.33%. However, other tech heavy-weights are cheering the move. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is increases its weighting to 8.3% from 3.41%, Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) increases to 4.2% from 1.75%, Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) increases to 6.68% from 3.38%, and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) increases to 5.8%. That’s some nice wind on the back of new CEO Larry Page.

3) Bonus: Chipotle (NYSE:CMG) sets a new 52-week high. We recommended Chipotle to our Wall St. Cheat Sheet Investment Newsletter subscribers when it was trading at $140. Today it hit $280....'

[video] Weisberg: Market Priced for Earnings Perfection [ I'd say far more than perfection as in contrived, fraudulent overbought bubble! ]

Monetary and Fiscal Policy Uncertainty: Dave's Daily ' Fed minutes revealed what most thought despite recent signs of improvement in the US economy; it didn't need to change its plan to boost the economy by buying $600 billion worth of bonds. In fact some thought QE2 should continue past the scheduled June expiration. Therefore POMO continues and Wednesday the Fed bought another $7.5 billion from their pals on Wall Street.

Separately, a government shutdown looms, which troubles some but not me particularly. There's more politics and posturing than leadership in Washington, that's for sure.

There was more fun when Michael Steinhardt of trading fame and now chairman of Wisdom Tree went off the reservation blasting Buffett and phony inflation data. The CNBC panel was flummoxed.

Stocks did little overall despite the long delayed reweighting of the NASDAQ affecting Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Cisco (CSCO). Given the Fed's unwillingness to deal with obvious inflation in commodity markets, precious metals once again were higher being the featured sector Wednesday.

Volume remains anemic while breadth per the WSJ was flat...'

Retail, ISM, Fed Reports Lead Tuesday's Economic Calendar [ Watch for the fake data / reports as their desperation grows! ]

A Weak SOX Can Trump a Dow Theory Buy Signal Suttmeier 'We are now operating under a Dow Theory Buy Signal as the Dow Industrial Average closed at 12,400.03 on Monday above its February 18 high at 12,391.29. Be aware that the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) is a drag in the opposite direction being down 9.5% from its February high. The Dow Industrials is up 0.1%, Dow Transports is up 1.4%, as is the Russell 2000 versus February highs. The SOX thus questions the sustainability of the Dow Theory Buy.

Stocks Remain Overvalued Fundamentally – We are operating under a ValuEngine Valuation Watch with more than 60% of all stocks overvalued. At Friday’s close 61.1% of all stocks were overvalued. In addition all 16 sectors are overvalued with eight by double-digit percentages. A ValuEngine Valuation Warning occurs when more than 65% of all stocks are overvalued. This last occurred at the mid-February highs.

10-Year Note – (3.431) The 10-Year yield is back below its 50-day simple moving average at 3.466, which favors the flight to quality scenario. Daily, annual and quarterly value levels are 3.537, 3.796 and 4.016 with weekly and monthly risky levels at 3.275 and 3.181...'

Wages not keeping pace with prices (Washington Post) [ Yes , there is a substantial cost to 'no-recession, helicopter ben' b. s. bernanke's attempt at new age alchemy in trying to spin worthless currency / paper securities / toxic assets into gold for the sake of fraudulent wall street only; which of course, not only does not work, but invariably ends quite badly. The more recent your trip to the grocery store, gas station, etc., the more pronounced the evidence. There is no modern day alchemy that 'spins more paper into gold'. That value has to come from some place; viz., you! Chemist charged with insider trading (Washington Post) [ This remains incredulous to me. Everyone but the big boys / frauds! Not just corruption, but bad time /resource management. The frauds on wall street et als should be criminally prosecuted, jailed, fined, and disgorgement imposed (this would also help significantly the hapless, hopeless budget scenario). Drop in home prices raises fear of double dip (Washington Post) [ Fear of double dip? We're in a continuing dip that never really ended with obfuscations of reality including more insurmountable debt and fed-based manipulations (Dave explains infra) Case-Shiller Chairman: Here’s Why the Housing Market Recession is Not Over Wall St Cheat Sheet 'Welcome to 2003! The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index 10-City Composite was down 2% and the 20-City Composite fell 3.1% in January on a year-over-year basis. On a monthly basis, the 10-City Composite was down 0.9% and the 20-City Composite fell 1.0% in January versus December 2010.San Diego and Washington D.C. were the only two markets to record positive year-over-year changes. However, San Diego was up a scant 0.1%, while Washington DC posted a healthier +3.6% annual growth rate. The same 11 cities that had posted recent index level lows in December 2010, posted new lows in January.

David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s commented:

“Keeping with the trends set in late 2010, January brings us weakening home prices with no real hope in sight for the near future. With this month’s data, we find the same 11 MSAs posting new recent index lows. The 10-City and 20-City Composites continue to decline month-over-month and have posted monthly declines for six consecutive months now.These data confirm what we have seen with recent housing starts and sales reports. The housing market recession is not yet over, and none of the statistics are indicating any form of sustained recovery . At most, we have seen all statistics bounce along their troughs; at worst, the feared double-dip recession may be materializing. ..., but both series have moved closer to a confirmed double-dip for six consecutive months. At this point we are not too far off, and that is what many analysts are seeing with sales, starts and inventory data too...' M&A, Ben Resuscitate Bulls: Dave's Daily 'If you can keep interest rates this low this long, its inevitable cheap financing can allow companies to start cobbling each other up. Further Ben's policies allow companies like IBM to sell bonds at 1% and buy back shares with the proceeds (total paper bubble-scam). POMO is occurring almost daily and Primary Dealers can buy back their shares and pay dividends with what essentially is taxpayer money--nifty trick eh? With all the geopolitical and nuclear events going on little noticed was Fed "stress tests" of financial institutions to see if they were healthy enough to buy back shares and pay dividends. Making the matter sinister and less transparent is their gag order on the entire process. The Fed also has some toxic waste they'd like to sell you… (see infra)’ ] False / fake data / reports galore … High oil price rally! Come on! What total b*** s***! Previous rally sparked by upward revision of GDP by the scandal-scarred commerce department? You can’t believe anything these desperate self-servers say! This manipulated bubble in this secular bear market based on b*** s*** alone and today’s suckers’ rally on more bad/worse than expected news (consumer confidence down) provides an especially great opportunity to sell / take profits while you still can since there's much worse to come! Fed to hold regular news conferences (Washington Post) [ Wow! Just what everyone needed … more spoon-fed b*** s*** / jawboning by the flawed, flatulent, faultful fed … for the sake of fraudulent wall street … you do remember those 'no-recession' jawbone sessions that sent the prior bubble expanding faster than 'the big bang' itself … until every got and continues to get banged from the last bubble-fraud crash. Chairman Bernanke’s move is part of efforts by the central bank to make the institution appear less secretive. States target jobless benefits (Washington Post) Durable goods (leading indicator) 200% worse than expected, stocks rally. ‘ February Durable Goods Orders Disappoint NEW YORK (TheStreet) Bharatwaj …’ This is the grim economic reality [ http://albertpeia.com/grimreality.htm ]. Looking Like A Good Time To Sell Into Strength - Harding BOB PRECHTER: We're Still In A Massive Bear Market And Stocks Will Crash To New Lows ]

Gold Settles at Record High Above $1,452 Reuters | Gold prices rose to settle at a record high above $1,452 ounce Tuesday.

The foreclosure mess isn’t going away Zachary Roth | Compelling video of a grandmother being evicted from her home by a SWAT team.

Oil prices hit all-time high in Britain Mail Online | Increases the mounting pressure on Bank of England interest rate-setters.

Larry Kramer CHART OF THE DAY: Verizon iPhone Owners Don't Have As Many Dropped Calls As AT&T iPhone Owners http://t.co/tj40Ku8 via @businessinsider

Larry KramerApple makes bid to become gatekeeper for newspapers and magazines - Be Careful! San Jose Mercury News http://t.co/j6OYNDh [ Very bad idea … for you … great for apple's over-priced offerings of all kinds; viz., hardware, software, content, etc.. … Let's just hope the air you breathe is not garnered through apple / itunes, etc.. ]

Gold in record territory, pushes past $1,443 Gold futures shook off early weakness to trade in record territory Tuesday, supported by conflict in the Middle East and North Africa, fears of a potential U.S. government shutdown and a drop for a key service-sector gauge.

US to reach debt limit by May 16: Treasury The United States is likely to hit its $14.29 trillion debt limit sooner than thought, the Treasury Department said Monday, pressuring lawmakers to raise the ceiling or face a possible government default.

Debt Management: Is There Any Hope For America’s Debt Problem? Wouldn’t it be nice if our politicians in Washington D.C. simply decided that we are not going to spend more money then we bring in? That would just seem to be common sense. After all, what do most of those big time debt management seminars teach?

Reaping What Bretton Woods Has Sown The seeds of today’s monetary problems were laid at Bretton Woods, NH in 1944, as a combination of socialists, communists and fascists laid the groundwork for the IMF, the World Bank and the eventual elimination of gold from the monetary world. The Federal Reserve’s role was to bring that about from behind the scenes.

National / World

10 Reasons Obama is Just As Bad or Worse Than Bush George W. Bush was clearly a mentally-challenged puppet of the military/banking/oil elite. The policies put it in place at breakneck speed after 9/11 were provably predetermined by think tanks well in advance. Not that other presidents were any less controlled by this hidden agenda, but there was a noticeable in-your-face quickening of corporate-government tyranny under Bush. [ Clearly, there is no denying the verity of this article. As such, this and the 10 reasons are set forth infra, following some prominent links from the Drudgereport. ]

Typical jersey – I recall back when, essex county sheriff d'allessio got indicted for innumerable bribes mob-infested jersey style … Christie says Essex County executive is wrong to collect pension, full salary TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie said today that Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr. is wrong to collect a pension and a salary for the same position simultaneously. Christie, in his strongest words yet on the issue, said he called DiVincenzo to express his displeasure. "I made this really … California's got their Bell's rizzo, etc., et als

Libyan rebels gain backing (Washington Post) [ Well there you go … it's all over but the shoutin'! … Riiiiight!Libya is a Continuation of Neocon War to Remake Middle East [ Come on! They're muddling along, debt ridden, incompetent, declining, failing, almost to a nation, individually and collectively. Trying to still appear relevant, more important are the nations absent from their war crimes folly (excepting israel for which these treasury depleting fiascos in the name of zionism continue down this path of self-defeat / self-destruction) ] Secret Illegal War Of Aggression Has Been Raging In Libya For Weeks Watson | US and British spies have been coordinating war for oil for some time. Rebels in ‘tactical’ retreat as leaders meet (WP) [ Tactical … riiiiight! Well, that sounds like a plan … right out of the manuals on trench warfare from WWI … works every time … you know, those manual tactics … meanwhile, back at the other american induced wartime disasters ... ] Italy became the third country to recognize the opposition as the legitimate government...

City withers in shadow of reactors (Washington Post) Japan dumps radioactive water into ocean [ Japan will never be viewed nor be quite the same again; somewhat hapless, if not hopeless, they have indeed become. Drudgereport: JAPAN TRIES 'SHREDDED NEWSPAPER' TO STOP NUKE LEAK (Well, there you go … a nostalgic throwback to yesteryear … paper maché … who woulda' thunk it … or remembered it … riiiiight … sounds like a plan!) 4 of 6 Daiichi reactors can’t be fixed (Washington Post) [ I continue to believe this to be a far more serious catastrophe with further reaching consequences, economically, financially, and otherwise than are being sloughed off by markets, pols, and media. It truly is sad to even think about what seem likely to be 'suicide jobs' but I must say I was incredulous regarding the $5,000 / day offer of recruitment for such workers (short-term? … for as long as they live?... Wow! … I immediately thought of skid row, the bowery, and admit to being somewhat ashamed for having done so.) Fukushima Nuke Plant Now in Full Meltdown Kurt Nimmo | Smoke was reported at a second nuclear power plant in Japan today. Japan’s Nuclear Rescuers: ‘Inevitable Some of Them May Die Within Weeks’ Workers at the disaster-stricken Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan say they expect to die from radiation sickness as a result of their efforts to bring the reactors under control, the mother of one of the men tells Fox News.Smoke Rises from DIFFERENT Nuclear Complex … 7 Miles from the Leaking Reactors The same nuclear power plant operator that runs the Daiichi complex – Tepco – runs a separate nuclear complex 7 miles away, called Fukushima Daini. There are 4 reactors located at the Daini complex.Japan Considers Entombing Nuclear Plant as Workers Fight to Stop Radiation Bloomberg | Japan will consider entombing its crippled atomic plant in concrete. Reactors now leaking plutonium into soil New York Post | “The situation is very grave,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said today. ]Workers continue to endure soaring radiation levels as they work to stave off a full-scale meltdown. ] In area that survived quake and tsunami largely intact, nuclear fears have created a ghost town.

Wages not keeping pace with prices (Washington Post) [ Yes , there is a substantial cost to 'no-recession, helicopter ben' b. s. bernanke's attempt at new age alchemy in trying to spin worthless currency / paper securities / toxic assets into gold for the sake of fraudulent wall street only; which of course, not only does not work, but invariably ends quite badly. The more recent your trip to the grocery store, gas station, etc., the more pronounced the evidence. There is no modern day alchemy that 'spins more paper into gold'. That value has to come from some place; viz., you! M&A, Ben Resuscitate Bulls: Dave's Daily 'If you can keep interest rates this low this long, its inevitable cheap financing can allow companies to start cobbling each other up. Further Ben's policies allow companies like IBM to sell bonds at 1% and buy back shares with the proceeds (total paper bubble-scam). POMO is occurring almost daily and Primary Dealers can buy back their shares and pay dividends with what essentially is taxpayer money--nifty trick eh? With all the geopolitical and nuclear events going on little noticed was Fed "stress tests" of financial institutions to see if they were healthy enough to buy back shares and pay dividends. Making the matter sinister and less transparent is their gag order on the entire process. The Fed also has some toxic waste they'd like to sell you / ' ...The Fed has injected $500 billion (another $7B in POMO Wednesday) to the financial system since January 2011 and that wave of liquidity is overwhelming most thoughtful analysis... Sure it's the end of the quarter and a jam-job to close things out puts a smile on investors' faces and bonuses in portfolio managers' pockets. Painting the tape and window dressing is against the law … ’ 19 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Is At The Heart Of Our Economic Problems Most Americans don't understand what the Fed Reserve is or why it is at the heart of our economic problems...most of them still blame either the Democrats or Republicans for inflation, for the housing crash, for our rampant unemployment and for the national debt. ] ] Inflation is back, with higher prices for food and fuel, and what hurts is paychecks are falling behind.

With deadline near, spending accord is elusive (Washington Post) [ If only their spending was as elusive as accords. Oh, there's no question but that they really know how to spend your money at the further expense of children … yet, elusive in this context is a good thing as hope still remains … House GOP leaders turn to Dems for deal (Washington Post) [ Of Dees, Dems, Does, and Gops … Sounds like a plan … Not! … The people are still hoping, praying … will their dream come true? … Government shutdown looms-Paul Kane (Washington Post) [ Shutdown? ... One can only hope, and pray ... after all, they can't muck up what they're not in session to f*** up ... Government shutdown looms Paul Kane (Washington Post) ]

Paul B. Farrell: Super-Rich CEOs are killing your retirement SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — 'Headlines race across the web: “Jamie Dimon Worries That Financial Regulation Will Doom Banks, Forever.” Doom? Forever? Settle down Dimon, this sounds like an over-the-top B-movie promo for “Vampire Chronicles.” ...

Mark Whitehouse explains how while low interest rates have meant big profits for banks, they are hurting small investors, including seniors who are seeing their cash earn minimal interest... 1-10 … 11. Nations ignore obvious till too late, then collapse rapidly

Yes, the end will be swift. Why? Few can take the warnings of geniuses like evolutionary anthropologist Jared Diamond. In “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed,” Diamond warns that societies fail because they’re unprepared, in denial till it’s too late: “Civilizations share a sharp curve of decline. Indeed, a society’s demise may begin only a decade or two after it reaches its peak population, wealth and power.” Just two decades. America hit its peak in 2000, with Bush’s election. Our two-decade reprieve will soon be up.

...

And again, the warnings are everywhere. Again ignored. Tragic figures like Dimon, Bernanke, Geithner as well as Bachus, Bachman, Palin, Trump, Koch Brothers and even Obama have that blind spot. They simply cannot hear any warnings … won’t till it’s too late. '

] After weeks of negotiating over money, time is now the biggest concern. There is general agreement the sides must work out a deal by Tuesday night.

Milbank: Robots in Congress? Yes, we replicant! (Washington Post) [ Wow! Mr. Milbank was apparently in quite an artsy mood when writing this article, so replete with latent meaning. Yet, when I think of replicants, I tend to think of the greater brilliance and beauty, viz., ie., Rutger Hauer and Sean Young / Darryl Hannah respectively in the spectacular classic, 'Blade Runner' by Ridley Scott; and hence, Mr. Milbank slights their memory unfairly. Moreover, when I think of henry waxman, I can't help but picture some hapless creature of the woodlands, ie., hedgehog, groundhog, etc., who gets plenty of face-time (big mistake ... doesn't he look like such a creature, personified?) but few results ($360 tons of hundreds flown into Iraq, etc.). He could have said biden's short-circuited (that previous lobotomy), harry's (milk-)toast, boxer (the california disaster), schumer a mob-friendly zionist (that FBI Agent Taus Affidavit), and pelosi correctly described as obsolete, disfunctional, incompetent, but beloved? … I don't think so, and I'm constrained to take issue with that. McConnel? I really seldom watch/listen to them but I guess he's good for Barney Fife or one of the original Hatfields / McCoys. Yes, they are all that … bad, and worse. It's good to see Mr. Milbank giving them a well-deserved shot across their bow … but he should keep in mind that robots with human flesh would be considered cyborgs … please don't insult the robots, they would say. The robots indeed take umbrage! ]

Ron Paul to Announce Presidential Bid Next Month Kurt Nimmo | The Texas Congressman will participate in a debate of presidential contenders in May.

Jesse Ventura Exposes 9/11 Stand Down Order Steve Watson | New book, 63 Documents The Government Doesn’t Want You To Read, blows the lid off top secret black ops.

The Fed Undermines Foreign Policy Ron Paul | The Fed lent huge sums of our money to foreign banks.

Alex Jones Interviews Jesse Ventura Infowars.com | The former governor of Minnesota talks about the TSA, a presidential run with Ron Paul, and his television show.

Jesse Ventura Exposes 9/11 Stand Down Order In a stunning new book, 63 Documents the Government Doesn’t Want You To Read, former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura presents a broad range of previously classified official government documents, each one telling its own story about the lengths the government goes to to cover up its secretive, controversial and at times downright criminal actions.

Plant radiation monitor says levels immeasurable A radiation monitor at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says workers there are exposed to immeasurable levels of radiation.

Japan Seawater Radioactivity Soars To 7.5 MILLION Times Legal Limit Japan just announced a huge surge in ocean contamination, as radioactive iodine-131 at 7.5 million times the legal limit was found near the plant, according to Japan Times.

EPA to raise limits for radiation exposure while Canada turns off fallout detectors The mass radioactive contamination of our planet is now under way thanks to the astonishing actions taking place at the Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan. As of last night, TEPCO announced it is releasing 10,000 tons of radioactive water directly into the Pacific Ocean. That 2.4 million gallons of planetary poison being dumped directly into the ocean.

Govt holding radiation data back / IAEA gets info, but public doesn’t The Meteorological Agency has been withholding forecasts on dispersal of radioactive substances from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant despite making the forecasts every day, it was learned Monday.

High radiation outside indoor advisory zone Radiation measurements have exceeded levels at which people are advised to stay indoors in a town outside the 30-kilometer radius of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Japan says dumping radioactive water in ocean doesn’t violate law The Japanese government on Tuesday defended its dumping of massive low-level radioactive water from the crisis-hit Fukushima nuclear plant, saying the action does not violate international laws, and pledged to fully inform the international community of Tokyo’s steps to tackle the ongoing emergency.

Drudgereport: PAPER: NEW THREATS AT NUKE PLANT
Libyan Rebels: 'NATO Is Now Our Problem'...
...asset freeze on Gaddafi regime 'hurting opposition'
Europe feels strain as US alters Libya policy...
Air Force spending $4 million a day on war...
NATO running short on of jets...
NUCLEAR SUSHI...
India bans Japan food imports...
Radiation monitor says levels 'immeasurable'...
FACEBOOK FRIENDS OBAMA RE-ELECTION!
ZUCKERBERG LIKES...
FLASHBACK: Gibbs seeks million-dollar job at company...
LIBYA: GADDAFI MUST STAY BUT COUNTRY READY TO DISCUSS 'REFORM'...
READY TO HOLD ELECTIONS... MORE...
DEFIANT: Gaddafi salutes supporters at compound...
US pulls out warplanes...
GOP BUDGET: CUT $5.8 TRILLION
FEDS SPEND 8X REVENUE...
White House moving forward with govt shutdown plans...
858 SOLDIERS KILLED IN AFGHAN WAR UNDER OBAMA...
NATO FORCES ACCIDENTALLY KILL 13 REBELS
CRACK FOUND IN NUKE REACTOR PIT...
Leaking directly into Pacific Ocean...
Struggle is on to seal it...
Japanese nuke crew faces '100-year battle'...
Petraeus Warns Quran Burning Endangers War Effort...
Protests Rage In Afghanistan...
JAPAN TRIES 'SHREDDED NEWSPAPER' TO STOP NUKE LEAK (Well, there you go … a nostalgic throwback to yesteryear … paper maché … who woulda' thunk it … or remembered it … riiiiight … sounds like a plan!)
HORROR: Remains From 3 More Victims In NY Serial Killer Case...
Duke lacrosse accuser arrested in boyfriend's stabbing...
Ahmadinejad Predicts Embarrassing End for Obama...

10 Reasons Obama is Just As Bad or Worse Than Bush Activist Post April 5, 2011 George W. Bush was clearly a mentally-challenged puppet of the military/banking/oil elite. The policies put it in place at breakneck speed after 9/11 were provably predetermined by think tanks well in advance. Not that other presidents were any less controlled by this hidden agenda, but there was a noticeable in-your-face quickening of corporate-government tyranny under Bush.

These policies like wars of aggression, illegal surveillance of Americans, torture of detainees indefinitely held without formal charges, unfair “free trade” agreements, and bank bailouts rightfully enraged many progressives during the Bush years. Yet, not only have these policies accelerated under Obama, even more of the draconian playbook is unfolding.

After 8 years of Bush’s reign that ended with a record low presidential approval rating in the low 20s, Obama’s promise of hope and change inspired many beyond mainline progressives. His campaign speeches were so powerful that they landed him the Nobel Peace Prize without having done anything for world peace except to offer the idea in order to get elected. As a Constitutional law professor and attorney, Obama appeared to have a greater understanding of rights and the balance of power than did flunky Bush.

Although policies being implemented under Obama’s leadership exhibit the continuation of Bush’s tyrannical agenda, his stunning betrayal of populist and Constitutional principles in support of these actions makes him the ultimate hypocrite. Additionally, because Obama is a much more influential orator than Bush, his service to the puppet masters is far more dangerous to the American people he’s supposed to serve.

There have been many articles written about Obama’s unkept promises and outright lies, but here are 10 actions that prove Obama is just as bad if not worse than Bush:

1) Bank/Corporate Bailouts: Although the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), otherwise known as the bankster bailout, occurred on Bush’s watch, Obama fully supported it as necessary. Obama then followed up this massive wealth grab with a gargantuan stimulus bill which has basically been absorbed by the financial crisis as well. All said, Bloomberg and others reported the taxpayer guarantees for Wall Street are upwards of $23 trillion. Additionally, the best part of Obama’s cabinet and appointed czars are directly connected to big banks like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. Furthermore, Obama and Democratic leaders gave the Federal Reserve even more regulatory power over the economy. The Administration hails the Financial Reform bill as a big political accomplishment, but the bill never addressed the three major problems: doesn’t break up or reduce the size of too-big-to-fail banks, doesn’t remove the massive government guarantees to the giant banks, and it won’t even increase liquidity requirements to prevent future meltdowns. The inmates are too clearly running Obama’s asylum.

2) Betrayal of the Poor: Bush never pretended to give a damn about the poor and the systematic mechanisms that keep them poor; openly calling the “haves and have mores” his “base.” But Obama has been portrayed as different, mainly because the Democratic party is viewed as more empathetic to the poor. Obama promised affordable healthcare, to create new jobs, and to increase access to a college education. However, the mandated healthcare bill has proven to actually hurt the poor, the “jobs” bill HIRE was nothing but a smokescreen to pass capital controls, and college loans are increasingly worse than useless since record numbers of students can’t find work to pay them off. So far he only seems to be helping the poor by extending food stamps to a record number of needy Americans — which is currently on the spending cut chopping block by the way. Obama also extended Bush’s tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans while the poor suffer the dramatic effects of inflation and the approaching austerity cuts demanded to prevent a government shutdown.

3) Expansion of Free Trade: Obama excoriated NAFTA, GATT and other so-called “Free Trade” agreements that were put in place under Clinton and Bush (with CAFTA). One of Obama’s campaign mailers to Ohioans read “one million jobs have been lost because of NAFTA, including nearly 50,000 jobs here in Ohio.” And Obama told unions that “he has always opposed NAFTA, and said the trade deal should be amended and renegotiated.” It is abundantly clear that free trade agreements have not done well for American manufacturing and its workers (just like Obama told us during his campaign). These free trade agreements are designed to only help the multinational corporations who wrote them, and who Obama now works for. In contrast to being “opposed” to such agreements, the government moves forward with many new similar agreements.

4) Escalating Wars of Aggression: Whoever thought it couldn’t get worse than Bush in regards to wars of aggression — especially by a Nobel Peace Prize recipient — have been proven dead wrong. Obama has now unilaterally attacked more countries than Bush, notably bombing inside Pakistan, Yemen and now Libya without Congressional approval. Obama is worse than war-mongering Neocons because he moved the war bar from requiring a real or manufactured threat to justify American military intervention, to vague humanitarian justifications. In other words, if a secular dictator is stamping out a handful of jihadists that threaten his regime, we will now bomb the dictator and support the jihadists when it serves corporate interests. By all counts Obama is serving the same military/oil masters no matter what labels or excuses are given. It is truly a hideous display to watch progressives support Obama’s wars as if they’re more righteous than Bush’s.

5)Internet Rights Eroding: The open and free Internet is under full assault under Obama’s leadership. It has become obvious that there has never been much in the way of Internet privacy, especially since the Patriot Act went into full effect. But now, free access to information via the Internet is the target of legislation such as The Protecting Cybersecurity as a National Asset Act, aka the “Internet Kill Switch” bill, and the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA), aka the domain “Blacklist” bill. The free Internet is also being threatened by market-based “net neutrality” agreements, civil lawsuits, technical censorship via search engines, and yes, blogging taxes too.

6) Finally, the DHS has been arbitrarily seizing domain names, which is clearly unconstitutional. Given that Obama is completely in bed with Google and others in the corporate information cartel, you can bet he will show his support for these endeavors even if only by remaining silent as they are debated then implemented.

7) Free Speech Restrictions: Bush mainly used fear, intimidation, access and fake reporters to control the establishment message. He and the media cartel acted in concert to sell gigantic lies to the public. Now, as more people replace their television service with the Internet, “news” has been more difficult for the establishment to control. As the global awakening takes place, the crackdown on free speech intensifies under Obama. The crackdown has been most obvious on the Internet (see next section) and on peaceful protesters. In a comically hypocritical moment that exemplifies how tyrannical this administration has become, Hillary Clinton was giving a speech about supporting the right of peaceful protesters while her security thugs violently removed a “veteran for peace” from the audience for standing in silent protest. Additionally, there was an absolute police state put in place during the 2009 G20 meeting in Pittsburgh to shut down peaceful protests. Finally, we know what direction the current Administration is headed in terms of free speech, given the recent White Papers revealing their desire to “outlaw” or “tax” conspiracy theories, and to make it a felony offense to share copyrighted information even when no money is involved. Torture and Sport Killing: Bush accepted some blame for the Abu Ghraib torture debacle. Rightly so, as it was his Administration that set forth more enhanced interrogation permissions down the chain of command that ultimately resulted in such disgusting behavior. Obama used the notion of closing Guantanamo prison to score political points and to appear as “anti-torture.” Not only does Guantanamo remain open two years into his presidency, the detainees have less rights than they did under Bush. Additionally, Obama has allowed the torture of American soldier Bradley Manning simply for being a suspected whistleblower. If he allows this type of treatment to an American citizen, we can only imagine the tactics that are still being used against enemy detainees. If it’s fair to blame Bush for Abu Ghraib, then it seems fair to blame Obama for allowing an environment where the U.S. military is engaged in sport killing of innocent civilians — which also seems to negate his calls for humanitarian purity in other nations.
8) Illegal Domestic Surveillance: It seems the monster surveillance-industrial complex that was kicked off under Bush remains in full swing under Obama. Obama voted for the Bush/Cheney FISA-telecom immunity after vowing to support a filibuster of it while he was a Senator. Glenn Greenwald reported: “So candidate Obama unambiguously vowed to his supporters that he would work to ensure ‘full accountability’ for ‘past offenses’ in surveillance lawbreaking. President Obama, however, has now become the prime impediment to precisely that accountability, repeatedly engaging in extraordinary legal maneuvers to ensure that ‘past offenses’ — both in the surveillance and torture/rendition realm — remain secret and forever immunized from judicial review.” And Carol Rose added, “The link between secrecy and surveillance is critical: in effect, our government is increasing its power to watch its citizens, while diminishing the power of citizens to watch their government – the very antithesis of democracy.” It’s telling how out of control illegal surveillance has become when private foreign companies are hired to spy on American environmental activists. This is in addition to the TSA’s roll-out of naked body scanners and intrusive pat-downs selectively enforced at airports and fiercely defended by Obama’s DHS.

9) Rule of Law is Dead: The Rule of Law is an ancient concept that means a society is governed by rational, objective written laws, as opposed to the personal whim or arbitrariness of some king. Under this pretext, no one is above the law, not even kings. Yet, we have seen this concept steadily erode from reality over many decades, but not so blatant as under George W. Bush whose team permanently subverted the rules in favor of the elite. Under Bush and now Obama, the corporate elite clearly get away with massive crimes against humanity and overwhelming fraud, while the little people are still routinely punished for all minor offenses. With not even a hint of punishment, banks can openly loot and defraud the public, the government can spy on Americans, the TSA can grope our private parts, while large corporations continue to poison us and the environment with impunity. The Feds, under Obama, have even raided legal medical marijuana dispensaries and private organic cooperatives. In addition, Obama signed an Executive Order to indefinitely detain “terror” suspects even after acquittal — while other lawmakers seek to remove Miranda Rights. Who is prosecuting these crimes and injustices? When the criminal corporations with their government partners continue to run the system, there will be no rule of law, or justice.
10) Obamacare Fascism: Even many progressives view Obamacare as a purely fascist policy. When a progressive tries to defend Obamacare these days, the best argument they can give is “at least Obama tried to fix the problem.” It’s their way of subtly deflecting blame to Bush for ignoring it because he was too busy “smokin’ turrurists outta their holes”. Healthcare reform was meant to increase competition and affordable coverage for all Americans. Yet, the private insurance monopolies remain and citizens are mandated to buy from them under penalty of jail, while 1000 of the most connected corporations are exempt from the law. Furthermore, the FDA remains under the full control of Big Pharma/Chemical giants and the giveaways to the drug companies have only increased. Finally, when there are huge profits involved in deciding if people live or die, and budgetary rationing of services, you will always have “death panels.” So, yes, the corporate government healthcare merger is complete with for-profit “death panels.” Folks, if you want to know what the modern-day definition of fascism is, you just read it.

We can sense the hate mail is coming from die-hard “team blue” fans here, but America doesn’t stand a chance without an honest assessment of what she represents and where she is heading under the policies outlined above. The Bush-Obama evolution is as blatant as it gets that the current two-party system has morphed into one that would more properly be labeled The Corporatist Party. We might do better to look beyond the two teams that so many root for, and realize that there is one central clubhouse from which they both operate.'

Paul B. Farrell: Super-Rich CEOs are killing your retirement Farrell, MarketWatch SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — 'Headlines race across the web: “Jamie Dimon Worries That Financial Regulation Will Doom Banks, Forever.” Doom? Forever? Settle down Dimon, this sounds like an over-the-top B-movie promo for “Vampire Chronicles.”

Suddenly the boss of $2 trillion J. P. Morgan Chase is our newest “Dr. Doom.” Last week he was preaching his mantra to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce choir, warning that financial reforms would be a “nail in the coffin for big American banks.” Small investors hurt by low rates

Mark Whitehouse explains how while low interest rates have meant big profits for banks, they are hurting small investors, including seniors who are seeing their cash earn minimal interest.

Nail in the coffin? Yes, and that’s exactly what the American public wants. Stuff Wall Street’s Vampire Squids back in their coffins, nail the lids shut, bury them forever.

Seriously, nationalize our incompetent Super-Rich Banks. We made a historic mistake not doing it in 2008. Should have let the vampires go bankrupt, reinstated Glass-Steagall. Instead we sat passively letting our double-dealing Treasury Secretary, former Goldman boss Hank Paulson, protect his Wall Street cronies as he conned Congress and taxpayers into making the worst economic blunder in American history, bailing out Wall Street’s “too-greedy-to-fail” banks.

Warning: Soon our Super-Rich Vampires will sink the economy deeper than 2008. Worse, they even believe we’ll bail them out again. We blinked in 2008, so they’ll try sucking out more bail-out blood next time.

The scene’s pathetic: Here’s one of America’s Super-Rich CEOs, a guy worth $260 million, coming across like a crybaby, whining because a tough-as-nails gal like Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren and her Consumer Financial Agency just might take away his toys for being a bad boy … might try to limit his ability to rip off cardholders … might limit his high-risk gambling with depositors’ cash, limit him playing in the $700 trillion global derivatives casino … might force his bank to put up more reserves to prevent the next meltdown … might even awaken his lost moral consciousness and get him to think about the public welfare instead of the tens of millions he makes squeezing the public.

Wall Street’s Super-Rich CEOs killing financial reforms

But will Wall Street have an epiphany? Change? Never. No, won’t happen. Why? America’s Super-Rich Vampire CEOs are already doomed, forever. Our too-greedy-to-fail banks are back to their old pre-2008 tricks, bankrolling a billion dollar “kill reform” drive. J. P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley have invested megabucks in lobbyists and politicians to water down, defund and effectively kill Warren’s CFA, the SEC, Dodd-Frank and every other attempt to protect the public.

These guys love running the Fed and Treasury as their own little piggy banks. As Spencer Bachus, the GOP chairman of the House Financial Services committee put it, government regulators “exist to serve banks.”

So, unfortunately, for a while you will have to listen to Dimon’s incessant whining as he keeps replaying his overly dramatic Dr. Doom story. Until Wall Street pounds all their nails in the coffin of financial reform, while resurrecting their self-destructive Reaganomics vampire that sank its fangs and triggered the 2008 meltdown.

But watch out Wall Street: Next time, American taxpayers won’t support bailouts and trillions more debt. We will sink into the Great Depression 2 and a new American Revolution next time. No bailout, we’ll just nationalize all banks.

Then, poor little Jamie and his Super-Rich buddies will lose their jobs, having destroyed American capitalism. Unfortunately, the great irony is that these insatiable greedy, incompetent CEOs will personally survive well after the collapse, living off the millions they’ve stashed away while sabotaging America with their bankrupt Reaganomics ideas.

Dimon becomes our newest Dr. Doom

Dimon really loves his new role as a Dr. Doom. Plays a tragic drama queen very well. That “nail in the coffin” speech fits perfectly with the Chamber’s kill-reform strategies.

Some may say Wall Street’s short-term thinking CEOs are too myopic to be on the same stage as our long-term thinking Dr. Dooms. But you decide: Here’s a criteria from Barron’s, offered by legendary money manager Jeremy Grantham, referring to the 2008 crash: “Why is it that several dozen people saw this crisis coming for years.” Several dozen Over four years. But “the bosses of Merrill Lynch and Citi and even Treasury Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Bernanke, none of them seemed to see it coming.”

Why? Grantham’s answer is simple: Wall Street and Washington’s leaders are “management types who focus on what they are doing this quarter or this annual budget.” Their myopia “guarantees that every time we get an outlying, obscure event that has never happened before in history, they are always going to miss it.”

Yes, and they’ll miss the next crash. Guaranteed. Here’s what other long-term thinking Dr. Dooms predict:

1. This time is never, never different with insatiable greed

In “This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly” economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff warn that as economies “improve there will always be a temptation to stretch the limits. … A financial system can collapse under the pressure of greed, politics and profits ... Technology has changed ... but the ability of governments and investors to delude themselves … seems to have remained a constant.”

2. Fed’s new easy money is fueling new bubble, new meltdown

In the 400-year history of the stock market “there has been a long succession of financial bubbles,” says financial historian Niall Ferguson. The culprit? The Fed: “Without easy credit creation a true bubble cannot occur. That is why so many bubbles have their origins in the sins of omission and commission of central banks.” And with the rate near zero, Bernanke is becoming the biggest bubble-blower in American history.

3. American ‘Empire’ has peaked, is on a rapid downward spiral

Savvy Hong Kong economist Marc Faber says “the average life span of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years … Once a society becomes successful it becomes arrogant, righteous, overconfident, corrupt, and decadent ... overspends ... costly wars ... wealth inequity and social tensions increase; and society enters a secular decline.”

4. Wall Street has created a very ‘short respite’ before new crash

Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz warned that unless Wall Street’s incentive system is drastically reformed, “the financial sector will only try to circumvent whatever new regulations we put in place. We will simply have a short respite before the next crisis.”

5. First dot-coms, then subprimes; ‘third episode’ dead ahead

Remember a decade ago in “Irrational Exuberance” Yale’s Robert Shiller predicted the dot-com crash. More recently he warned: “Bubbles are primarily a social phenomena. Until we understand and address the psychology that fuels them, they’re going to keep forming. We recently lived through two epidemics of excessive financial optimism, we are close to a third episode.” And everything since 2008 guaranteed the “third episode.”

6. America’s ‘running out of time’ before the Great Depression 2

Former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson waned: “We’re running out of time … to prevent a true depression … the financial industry has effectively captured our government” and is “blocking essential reform,” and unless we break Wall Street’s “stranglehold” we will be unable prevent another Great Depression. Failure to reform Wall Street guarantees a depression. Unfortunately, Dimon just doesn’t get it.

7. Fed’s haunted by ghost of Greenspan’s failed Reaganomics

When Obama reappointed Bernanke, “Black Swan’s” Nicholas Taleb warned that Bernanke was an economist who “doesn’t even know he doesn’t understand how things work.” Now the Fed’s Greenspan clone is feeding the GOP’s self-destructive Reaganomics ideology, blindly focused on saving a dying banking system by flooding the world with inflated dollars guaranteed to trigger another meltdown.

8. Hedgers made billions shorting dumb politicians, dumber bankers

Hedge funds make fortunes betting on the utter stupidity of Washington politicians and Wall Street CEOs gambling with the Fed’s self-destructive cheap-money policies. In fact, AR Magazine just reported that the top hedge fund manager made $4.9 billion shorting our clueless leaders, after making $3.4 billion in 2008, the year of the crash.

9. Dollar’s dead as reserve currency, killing our retirement system

In George Soros’s “New Paradigm:” America’s 25-year “superboom … led to massive deregulation ... blindly chasing free markets ... unleashed excessive greed ... created the dot-com and credit meltdowns” and a “shadow banking system” of derivatives. “The system is broken … the end of an era of credit expansion based on the dollar as the international reserve currency.” Warns Soros: “We’re now in a period of wealth destruction.”

10. Sell everything, hide in the hills with seed, fertilizer, drugs, guns

Barton Biggs 2008 bestseller, “Wealth, War and Wisdom” warns us to prepare for a “breakdown of civilization … Your safe haven must be self-sufficient and capable of growing some kind of food ... well-stocked with seed, fertilizer, canned food, wine, medicine, clothes, etc. … a few rounds over the approaching brigands’ heads would probably be a compelling persuader that there are easier farms to pillage.” Biggs is no anarchist militiaman; he’s a former Morgan Stanley research guru, now a top hedge fund manager.

11. Nations ignore obvious till too late, then collapse rapidly

Yes, the end will be swift. Why? Few can take the warnings of geniuses like evolutionary anthropologist Jared Diamond. In “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed,” Diamond warns that societies fail because they’re unprepared, in denial till it’s too late: “Civilizations share a sharp curve of decline. Indeed, a society’s demise may begin only a decade or two after it reaches its peak population, wealth and power.” Just two decades. America hit its peak in 2000, with Bush’s election. Our two-decade reprieve will soon be up.

Obvious warnings were everywhere long before the 2008 meltdown. But a tragic Reaganomics dogma created a blind spot in Greenspan, Bernanke and Paulson. Today that blind spot is even stronger with a new crop of Reaganomics ideologues.

And again, the warnings are everywhere. Again ignored. Tragic figures like Dimon, Bernanke, Geithner as well as Bachus, Bachman, Palin, Trump, Koch Brothers and even Obama have that blind spot. They simply cannot hear any warnings … won’t till it’s too late. '

A Stark Peak Profits Warning from Capital & Crisis's Chris Mayer Cooper 'Rising star of the US financial newsletter world, Chris Mayer, has a stark warning for readers in his latest issue of Capital & Crisis (click here). Profit margins in the US have reached unprecedented levels and can now only fall as commodity price inflation hits home.

One of the vulnerabilities in today’s market is that profit margins are near peaks’, he says. ‘Investors tend to like companies with fat profit margins, but high profit margins are like honey pots that attract competitors. They are rarely sustainable for long.

Top ten crisis

If you take a list of the top 10 technology stocks in the US Nasdaq market, the average net profit margin is around 25 per cent, and similar high profit margins are also seen across the S&P 500 stocks. The boost to profit margins has come from cost cutting in the downturn, mainly in the form of job cuts that do nothing to boost domestic consumer demand.

Today, though, I doubt many of these firms have much more to cut,’ suggests Mayer. ‘Instead, the focus is now growing sales and taking business from competitors or defending an existing business. The focus, too, is how to deal with rising raw material costs. All of these put enormous pressure on margins. We should expect to see them fall.

That of course is the contrarian view. It is not what the bulls of Wall Street are saying. They see a recovery in the US economy that is raising all boats.

If the Wall Street consensus is again wrong, then the reverse will be true and all boats will sink. Mr Meyer is stock picking to locate the boats that will stay afloat, so at least he is thinking in the right direction. But the tendency always is for the good to get cast down with the bad, particularly if the numbers are overwhelming.

Naturally, this situation is most dangerous when company profits have recovered sharply and the domestic economy is still in the dumps. And what do US auto and house sales figures quite clearly show us? (click here). The domestic US economy is still in a depression with activity well down on the boom years.

Domestic depression

Now if domestic demand is not rising, and indeed consumer personal disposable income is falling (click here), then what prospects are there for pushing up company revenues to keep profits surging ahead? You have to look to exports and repatriation of multinational income.

Yes but does the world not have a few worries of its own right now? To briefly summize: Japan just had its worst earthquake in history and nuclear reactors are leaking plutonium; the UK is facing three years of austerity; the eurozone has a massive debt crisis and the Middle East and North Africa are in a state of revolution, civil war and protest that have pushed oil prices to a two-year high.

Will Asian sales hold up under these circumstances? Or will stocks sell off and the dollar rally, making US exports uncompetitive again? This peak profits warning is very well timed.'

Irwin Kellner: Don’t believe everything you hear Kellner, MarketWatch PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. (MarketWatch) — 'Don’t believe everything you hear — especially when politics is involved.

These days, it amazes me how many canards pass for the truth. I can only assume that the purveyors of these misleading bits of information must figure that if something is repeated often enough, people will take it as correct. ..

While there no doubt are many examples, I give you five that are particularly egregious. I will list them below in no particular order, and then tell you why each of these is incorrect:

— the longer the government pays jobless benefits, the higher unemployment will be;

— rising prices are no problem because “core” inflation is low;

— cutting government spending creates jobs;

— entitlements are fair game for budget cutters;

— Social Security is a key reason for Washington’s budget deficit.

A close look will reveal just how absurd these statements really are. And by the way, neither political party has a lock on this craziness; this kind of convoluted thinking can be found among Democrats as well as Republicans.

The first item assumes that people are lazy; they would rather be on the dole than work. This is ridiculous for two reasons. First, these days there are more than five applicants for every job. Second, the median weekly jobless benefit is $300 — barely above the poverty level for one person and far below the median weekly pay of $740, which, itself, won’t buy much in most parts of the country.

Next is the belief that excluding food and energy is the best way to measure inflation. This is misleading since (a) we all consume food and energy every day; (b) because of this, these items have a major influence on our attitudes towards inflation and (c) in the case of energy, many firms are tacking on surcharges to the goods they make and/or deliver, so higher energy prices are showing up elsewhere as well.

Meet the Most Tax Efficient Man in America

Doug Stives earns less than 75 percent of his former salary but takes home almost 90 percent as much. How? He claims every tax deduction he can. Kelsey Hubbard talks with the CPA turned professor about using the tax code to get more with less.

The third item could literally be ripped from today’s headlines. It is Herbert Hoover economics reincarnated — the notion that fiscal probity is the key to economic happiness. By tightening its belt and reducing its deficit, the story goes, the government will help the economy grow and create jobs by boosting business confidence. No mention is made of the decline in buying power and rise in joblessness that will occur first, which makes me wonder why this would prompt a rise in hiring by the private sector.

Those who subscribe to the fourth item forget the definition of the word “entitlement.” Webster’s Dictionary says that an entitlement is “a right granted by law or contract, especially to financial benefits from the government.” To some people, however, an entitlement is a derisive term, a promise to be broken. But breaking this particular promise would also break the law. The FICA Act of 1935 states specifically that revenues raised under that act can be used only to pay Social Security benefits. Over the years the provisions of this act have been reinforced a number of times.

Why all the interest in Social Security? Because it is a cash cow, with assets totaling well over $2 trillion — more than three times the amount needed to cover this year’s payments to beneficiaries. In plain English, the System has a surfeit of funds and is in no way responsible for today’s budget deficits. To put it another way, Social Security has been around for over 75 years, whereas today’s slug of red ink is only a few years old. Washington’s humongous deficits are clearly the result of too much spending (two wars, massive bailouts and the huge stimulus package) combined with insufficient revenues (tax cuts and the Great Recession).

So the next time you hear a politician tell you something that does not sound quite right — chances are it isn’t.

Irwin Kellner is MarketWatch's chief economist. '

Putting a Damper on the Big March Job Report Celebration Baker 'Okay, this celebration around the jobs report is really getting out of hand. Both the Post and Times had front page pieces touting the good news. The Post gets the award for being the more breathless of the two:

The jobs numbers come amid other promising signs that the recovery is building momentum. The stock market wrapped up the first quarter this week with a 6.4 percent gain in the Dow Jones industrial average and continued to tack upward Friday, adding another 0.5 percent. Investors were pleased that the job growth was continuing — but not so fast that the Federal Reserve might want to apply the brakes by raising interest rates anytime soon.

Also contributing to the buoyant markets were reports from automakers Friday showing that auto sales rose in March. Sales of new vehicles were up 11 percent over a year before at General Motors, 16 percent at Ford and 23 percent at Honda.

A separate report Friday also showed continued strong growth in the manufacturing sector, with the Institute for Supply Management’s index of activity at the nation’s factories edging down to 61.2 from 61.4. Numbers above 50 indicate expansion.

First off, no one should include the stock market as indicator of the economy's well-being. Rich people are happy -- that's nice -- it has little to do with the economy. The car buying is positive, but with so many of the cars now imported or largely comprised of imported parts the impact of this surge in sales is much less than would have been the case 30 years ago. The drop in the Institute for Supply Management's index suggests that manufacturing is likely to make a marginally smaller contribution to growth in the months ahead, not good news. (The Bureau of Labor Statistics employment diffusion index for manufacturing, a measure of the percent of sectors that expect to add workers, fell from 66.0 in February to 63.0 in January, it had been 73.5 in January.)

As noted above, 216,000 jobs is not especially impressive, especially given the depth of the hole that our economic policymakers put us in. In only 15 of the 52 months from February 1996 to May of 2000 did the economy create fewer than 216,000 jobs. In most cases the weakness was caused by bad weather. And this was at a time when the working age population was more than 10 percent less than today.

It is also striking that neither paper seems to have mentioned the Commerce Department's report on construction in February, which showed a 1.4 percent decline in February, following even larger declines in December and January. (The big news in this report was the 2.6 percent downward revision to the data originally reported for January.) Much of the story here is in non-residential construction as the building boom that resulted from the bubble in that sector is leading to a bust. The largest declines are in manufacturing construction where bio-fuel subsidies had led to a boom in ethanol plants in 2009-2010.

Anyhow, construction is certain to be a big drag on growth in the first quarter. It should knock at least a percentage point off GDP growth for the quarter. I am forecasting many surprised economists and reporters.

I have one more point skunk to toss over at the celebrators. Here is the path of the employment to population ratio (EPOP) over the downturn. Note that we have only risen slightly from the low hit in December of 2009 and the EPOP is actually a hair lower today than it was a year ago. The drop in the unemployment rate over this period was entirely due to people leaving the labor force. Now is that good news or what?(chart)...'

Markets Treading Water: Dave's Daily 'Bulls had a barely perceptible pulse Monday. Volume was incredibly light as traders were unmoved to do much of anything other than keep things stable. Tech underperformed weighed down by Apple(AAPL_) and Semis most of the day. But, as this is written, breaking news indicates Texas Instruments(TXN_) will buy National Semiconductor(NSM_) for $6.5 billion so corporations armed with liquidity can keep markets alive with M&A activity. Away from the late headline regarding TXN/NSM, little changed in markets overall. Again, volume was light and breadth overall per the WSJ was moderately positive adding to short-term overbought conditions...'

Weekly Indicators: Economy Slowing Due to Choke Collar of High Oil Prices Stewart 'Last week's headline numbers were the 216,000 jobs added in March and the continued decline in the unemployment rate to 8.8%. As usual, I'll have more to say in the coming week, including at least one finding that contradicts the conventional wisdom. For now, we can just note that it was a good number - just not good enough for all the ground we have to make up.

Other monthly numbers continued to show an economy that is slowing due to the choke collar of high Oil prices. The manufacturing workweek declined (-.1), as did new factory orders. There are two more of the 10 leading indicators that have turned down. Residential and non-residential spending also declined. New cars sold in March also declined slightly from February, although at 13.1 million vehicles, this is still the second best showing in over two years. On the plus side, manufacturing as measured by the Chicago PMI and the ISM continued on a tear. BUT the leading components of that index - new orders and vendor deliveries - declined. Vendor deliveries declined sharply - the third of the 10 leading indicators to show a decline this week.

Did I mention that Oil was like a choke collar constricting economic growth?

Turning now to the high-frequency weekly indicators:

The BLS reported that Initial jobless claims last week were 388,000. The 4 week average is 394,250. This is the sixth week in a row that this number has been initially reported below 400,000. On the other hand, this series has not made a new low in the last month. Will the downward momentum continue or has it stalled?

On the other hand, Oil was trading at about $107.94 a barrel Friday, the fourth full week it has been above $100. It remains at a level above 4% of GDP. I believe we have started to see the economic damage from that shock. Gas at the pump increased to $3.60 a gallon. Gasoline usage at 8866 M gallons was 2% lower than last year. As I expected, this YoY comparison is deteriorating and has now turned negative.

Railfax was up 3.5% YoY. Baseline traffic for the second week is no higher than last year's levels, and both cyclical and intermodal traffic are only slightly higher. Waste materials continued below last year's levels (this may be fallout from municipal funding cuts for recycling). Shipments of motor vehicles remained the bright spot, continuing to improve YoY. With the exception of motor vehicles, rail freight is now also signalling a significant slowdown (but not an outright reversal).

The Mortgage Bankers' Association reported a decrease of 1.7% in seasonally adjusted mortgage applications last week. This series has meandered generally in a flat range since last June. Refinancing decreased 10.1%, and remains near its lows since last July. The silver lining is that neither series has hit a new low in almost 9 months.

The American Staffing Association Index remained at 91 for yet another week. This series has stalled at the 90-91 level for 7 weeks. It is signalling stagnation, not growth, and is stalled relative to its pre-recession peak.

The ICSC reported that same store sales for the week of March 26 rose 2.6% YoY, and increased 0.2% week over week. Shoppertrak reported a 4.3% YoY gain for the week ending March 19, and a WoW gain of 0.5%. Unlike almost every other series, these two series' YoY comparisons have been remaining steady or improving over the last month.

Weekly BAA commercial bond rates increased.02% to 6.00%. This compares with a 09% increase in the yields of 10 year Treasuries to 3.38%. Both series are down from recent highs.

Adjusting +1.07% due to the recent tax compromise, the Daily Treasury Statement showed that for all of March 2011, $163.8 B was collected vs. $164.9 B a year ago, for a loss of -1.1 B YoY. This is the first month with an outright YoY decline compared with last year. For the last 20 days, $136.6 B was collected vs. $128,4 B a year ago, for a gain of $8.2B, or +6.4%. I suggest using this series with extra caution, because the adjustment for the withholding tax compromise is only a best guess, and may be significantly incorrect.

M1 was up 1.3% w/w, down -0.4% M/M, and up a strong 9.9% YoY, so Real M1 is up 7.7%. M2 was unchanged w/w, up 0.2% M/M and up 4.3% YoY, so Real M2 is up 2.1%. Although Real M1 is still strongly in the "green zone" where it has been since before the end of the "great recession," Real M2 has been fading back into the "yellow zone" below 2.5%. Additionally, the weak +0.2% M/M reading means that, depending on inflation, it could become yet another of the 10 components of the LEI to go negative in March.

Last week I noted that the LEI may have a negative month in March. Consumer confidence, durable goods, and (Feb.) housing permits were all down strongly. This week ISM vendor supplies, the manufacturing workweek, and new factory orders also turned down. As noted just above, M2 could also be a negative. Only the bond spread yield, the stock market, and initial unemployment claims look like positives. In sum, that's 6 components down, 1 neutral (possibly negative), and only 3 positive. (OTOH, ECRI's growth indicator continues to be positive).

Did I mention that OIl was like a choke collar constricting economic growth?'

Barack Obama: Losing $84 billion big success Washington Times | Barack Obama has some ‘splaining to do about taxpayers’ profitable “investment” in General Motors.

Bill Gross: Congress Is Like That Bastard In Your Life Always Promising He’ll Change Even Though He NEVER DOES

Fed’s Rules Let Brokers Turn Junk Into Cash at Height of Financial Crisis At the height of the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve allowed the world’s largest banks to turn more than $118 billion in junk bonds, defaulted debt, securities of unknown ratings and stocks into cash.

Ron Paul: People Need Currency Choices – Kitco News Congressman Ron Paul talks w/ Kitco News about a bill that aims at establishing competing currency in the U.S. Also discussed is his previous Federal Reserve audit bill, as well as the possibility of running as a Presidential candidate.

Good Economic Numbers? Don’t Be Fooled By The Financial Sugar High The U.S. financial system is like a junkie that needs continually increasing amounts of “junk” to get the same “buzz”. So what is the U.S. financial system addicted to? It is addicted to money and debt.

Americans Just Took a Pay Cut As Inflation Outpaces Wages You may not have noticed it when you opened up your paycheck last month, but you just took a pay cut

Bob Chapman: The Road of Inflation Will Only End in Tears Cycles and booms and busts just don’t happen. They are planned that way. In the late 1990s Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan commented on irrational exuberance and said he hoped the market would cool down.

IMF Says US Must Raise All Taxes, Cut All Entitlements By 35% To Contain Future Budget In what is either a delayed April Fool’s report, or its latest exercise in rhetoric the IMF asks the humorous question: “An Analysis of U.S. Fiscal and Generational Imbalances: Who Will Pay and How?”

Rep. Paul Plans Hearings on Fed Loans The chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees the Federal Reserve said he plans to hold hearings in May on disclosures that the Fed made billions — perhaps trillions — in secret emergency loans to almost every major bank in the U.S. and overseas during the financial crisis.

The Fed Is on ‘Different Monetary Planet’: Economist The Federal Reserve is on a different monetary planet from the rest of the world, according to Credit Suisse UK Economist Robert Barrie.

How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico’s murderous drug gangs As the violence spread, billions of dollars of cartel cash began to seep into the global financial system. But a special investigation by the Observer reveals how the increasingly frantic warnings of one London whistleblower were ignored.

National / World

Al Qaeda: Pawns of CIA Insurrection from Libya to Yemen Webster Tarpley | In the current phase, al Qaeda has resumed its original status as CIA guerrillas.

Jesse Ventura: Big Sis Discriminates Against Common Americans Kurt Nimmo | Members of Congress and other officials avoid pat-downs and naked body scanners.

Jesse Ventura Challenges Ron Paul to Leave Republican Party Steve Watson | Paul/Ventura 2012? Former Governor offers himself up as vice president nominee.

Pentagon sock puppet trolls attack alt media RT | Max talks to Alex Jones about food stamps and financial terror.

Fukushima Workers Try to Plug Radiation Leaks With Old Newspapers Steve Watson | Mayor, Governor slam government as tons of radioactive water is poured into Pacific.

Ventura Urges Ron Paul To Run For President As Independent Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura has an important message for Libertarian Congressman Ron Paul – ditch the Republican Party and run for President as an independent.

Jesse Ventura: Big Sis Discriminates Against Common Americans Appearing today on the Alex Jones Show today, the former governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura, told Alex Jones the TSA discriminates against common Americans by allowing the elite and select politicians to avoid naked body scanners and sexual molestation gropes at the nation’s airports.

UNBELIEVABLE: Fukushima Workers Trying To Plug Radiation Leaks With Bits Of Newspaper, Garbage Bags, Diaper Like Material The impact of the radioactive material on sea life could be catastrophic as over 11, 500 tons of contaminated water is now being intentionally released into the Pacific ocean by workers at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in a last ditch desperate effort to clean out the area.

Oil Rises On Market Speculation Over Globalist War in Libya Oil has spiked to a 30-month high on market speculation related to demand and the globalist war against the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi.

No Fly Zone Succeeds: Libyan Rebels To Sell First Oil Cargo And so the real goal of the Libyan “No Fly Zone” succeeds: Reuters reports that the Libyan rebel alliance, which already has its own central bank and supposedly fiat printing machines, is about to sell its first oil cargo in the coming week.”

Al Qaeda: Pawns of CIA Insurrection from Libya to Yemen US, British, French, and Dutch commandos have taken leadership of the rebel forces, and are arming them with modern weapons in flagrant violation of the arms embargo specified in UN Security Council resolution 1973.

Former CIA officer blows lid off libya fraud live on CNN Every once in a while, establishment control of the mainstream media cracks for a moment. In an effort to achieve higher ratings, mainstream news programs will invite guests on that promise to be “interesting”, but then they will say something that is not part of the script and the entire system will go into a state of chaos for a moment.

US agrees to continue Libya airstrikes The United States has agreed to a NATO’s request for a 48-hour extension of American participation in the Western coalition’s airstrikes on Libya.

Lindsey Graham Advocates Killing First Amendment Kurt Nimmo | Freedom of speech should not be tolerated during an undeclared forever war.

How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico’s murderous drug gangs London Observer | A special investigation reveals how the increasingly frantic warnings of one London whistleblower were ignored.

NY Times contributor confirms California rainwater 181 times above drinking water standards for radioactive iodine-131 ENE News | Federal officials have still not published any official data on nuclear fallout from Japan disaster.

‘War for Libyan oil planned long ago, no one cares about people’ RT | Susan Lindauer, journalist and author, has never believed the allied forces intervened in Libya out of humanitarian reasons.

UN-backed Ivory Coast Leader Accused in Massacres BBC | Ban Ki-moon insists Alassane Ouattara and his followers are not involved.

Exposed: The US-Saudi Libya deal You invade Bahrain. We take out Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. This, in short, is the essence of a deal struck between the Barack Obama administration and the House of Saud.

“Protecting” Civilians And Aiding Rebels By Killing Them: 13 Dead From NATO Airstrike NATO voiced concern on Saturday about reports of civilian deaths in a coalition air strike near Brega as rebels claimed victory in the battle for the key Libyan oil town.

Here Come “The Boots On The Ground”: EU Approves “Possible” Military Operation For Libya While it has been made very clear that no US “boots” would be on the ground in Libya, except for those beloning to CIA operatives of course, no such stigma applies to Europe.

Gaddafi rejects rebel truce offer Moamar Gaddafi’s regime has rejected a conditional ceasefire offer made by Libyan rebels, saying government forces would not withdraw from towns they control.

Regulator Says Radioactive Water Leaking Into Ocean From Japanese Nuclear Plant Highly radioactive water is leaking directly into the sea from a damaged pit near a crippled reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, safety officials said Saturday.

GREENPEACE Measures EXTREME RADIATION 40KM From Fukushima – Why No Evacuation? Regardless of what anyone thinks about GreenPeace and their stance on fraudulent man made warning, this video clearly shows that levels at least 40km from the plant are EXTREMELY high!

Flashing Blue Light Seen Above Exploded Nuclear Reactor The characteristic blue glow of nuclear reactors is due to Cherenkov radiation.

Reactor Core Was Severely Damaged, U.S. Official Says Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Friday that roughly 70 percent of the core of one reactor at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan had suffered severe damage.

Radiation Found In San Francisco, CA Tap Water – 18,100% Above Drinking Water Limit Alexander Higgins | The federal drinking water limit for Iodine-131 is 3 Picocuries per liter.

Drudgereport: LIBYA: GADDAFI MUST STAY BUT COUNTRY READY TO DISCUSS 'REFORM'...
READY TO HOLD ELECTIONS... MORE...
DEFIANT: Gaddafi salutes supporters at compound...
US pulls out warplanes...
GOP BUDGET: CUT $5.8 TRILLION
FEDS SPEND 8X REVENUE...
White House moving forward with govt shutdown plans...
858 SOLDIERS KILLED IN AFGHAN WAR UNDER OBAMA...
NATO FORCES ACCIDENTALLY KILL 13 REBELS
CRACK FOUND IN NUKE REACTOR PIT...
Leaking directly into Pacific Ocean...
Struggle is on to seal it...
Japanese nuke crew faces '100-year battle'...
Petraeus Warns Quran Burning Endangers War Effort...
Protests Rage In Afghanistan...
JAPAN TRIES 'SHREDDED NEWSPAPER' TO STOP NUKE LEAK (Well, there you go … a nostalgic throwback to yesteryear … paper maché … who woulda' thunk it … or remembered it … riiiiight … sounds like a plan!)
HORROR: Remains From 3 More Victims In NY Serial Killer Case...
Duke lacrosse accuser arrested in boyfriend's stabbing...
Ahmadinejad Predicts Embarrassing End for Obama...

Radioactive water in Japan plant leaks into sea (Washington Post) [ I gotta say, and I’m not happy to say it; but the way they’re puttin’ out the info is starting to sound like a page out of pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america’s propaganda playbook. I’m not much of a fisheater, but even if I was, I would be taking no chances with this. Too much money changin’ hands both ways to trust what they say, based upon the kind / quality of reporting / updating thus far. Fukushima Plant Operators Again Ordered To “Review” Radiation Readings Steve Watson | Findings have raised fears that underground waterways and drinking water supplies could become contaminated.

‘US orders media silence over Bahrain’ Press TV | President of Bahrain’s Center for Human Rights Nabeel Rajab says the US media have been ordered not to cover news on the government’s brutal crackdown on Bahraini people.

Cover Up: Fukushima Plant Operators Again Ordered To “Review” “Suspiciously High” Radiation Readings The operators of the crippled nuclear power plant at Fukushima have once again been ordered to “review” and retract their radiation findings where appropriate because Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says they are too high.] Authorities discover radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant flowing into the sea from a crack in the No. 2 reactor, adding to mounting problems facing emergency repair workers.

Stalemate foreseen for Libya (Washington Post) [ Well, there we go … Now that sounds like the unplan plan we've come to know and love in defacto bankrupt america. After all, at this point, what's a little more bankrupt if you're already defacto bankrupt … too redundant to even think about ... Al Qaeda’s Dark Secret Exposed TheAlexJonesChannel | Evidence proves al Qaeda is Western manufactured.

Canadian officials ‘secretive’ on North American perimeter security agreement Aaron Dykes | Unifying the once sovereign nations of North America under treaty law moves forward in stealth.

Coalition Air Strikes: Body Bags Begin Piling Up Patrick Henningsen | The use of DU has been a major feature in US-led Coalition and Israeli war efforts since 2001.

Government Bureaucrats Steal Basketball Hoops Kurt Nimmo | As the founders knew, without property rights we are slaves.

Neocons and Democrats Work in Congress to Support Obama’s Libyan War As the mad bombers at NATO engage in a public relations stunt in response to the fallout from the slaughter of innocent Libyan civilians, here in the United States a few dignified members of Congress are attempting to put a halt to the illegal war.

The New Colonialism: Washington’s Pursuit of World Hegemony [Oh come on! They only wish! The nation's defacto bankrupt … understand all that that entails! ]What we are observing in Libya is the rebirth of colonialism. Only this time it is not individual European governments competing for empires and resources.

Target China Far from the Founding Father’s ideal representative republic, China has garnered a reputation as one of the most repressive regimes on earth. While some of this is well earned, much of it is due to the unsavory legacy left by Mao’s “Great Leap Forward” which to this day is still being carefully and systematically dismantled.

Gaddafi regime admits attempts to talk to west The regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has initiated a concerted effort to open lines of communication with western governments in an attempt to bring the conflict in the country to an end.

Libyan opposition offers ceasefire A Libyan opposition leader has said the rebels will accept a UN-demanded ceasefire if Muammar Gaddafi pulls his forces from all cities and allows peaceful protests.

Rand Paul: Fox can’t decide ‘what they love more, bombing the Middle East or bashing the president’ Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) joked Wednesday night that the Fox News Channel can’t seem to reconcile their dislike for President Barack Obama with their support for his military intervention in Libya.

Libya is a Continuation of Neocon War to Remake Middle East [ Come on! They're muddling along, debt ridden, incompetent, declining, failing, almost to a nation, individually and collectively. Trying to still appear relevant, more important are the nations absent from their war crimes folly (excepting israel for which these treasury depleting fiascos in the name of zionism continue down this path of self-defeat / self-destruction) ]Statement on Libya – Defining U.S. National Security Interests, Before the Foreign Affairs Committee, US House of Representatives, 31 March 2011 ] While it could keep civilians safe, deadlock could also extend commitments by the United States.

Facing shutdown, Boehner keeps cool (Washington Post) [ Cool as in 1) cool as a cucumber 2) moderately cold 3) not friendly 4) impudent 5) overly protected from the heat 6) very good 7) unflappable 8) composed 9) collected … ? All of the above? … none of the above? Meanwhile, back at the capital hill rancho, Federal workers anxious about unknown , as indeed they should be. After all, the ranks of the government-employed have swollen to beyond the dreams of the failed communist regimes of yesteryear … More Americans work for the government than in manufacturing, farming, fishing, forestry, mining and utilities combined Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). Defacto bankrupt america the new marxian dream … eh, comrade ?... House GOP leaders turn to Dems for deal(Washington Post) [ Of Dees, Dems, Does, and Gops … Sounds like a plan … Not! … The people are still hoping, praying … will their dream come true? … Government shutdown looms-Paul Kane (Washington Post) [ Shutdown? ... One can only hope, and pray ... after all, they can't muck up what they're not in session to f*** up ... Government shutdown looms Paul Kane (Washington Post) ]Unable to find consensus within their own ranks, House Republican leaders have begun courting moderate Democrats on a budget deal to avoid a government shutdown next week.

Employers continue adding jobs in March(Washington Post) [ Jobs report better than expected … April fools … you got to be to believe anything they say, desperate as they are [ Drudgereport: GALLUP: Unemployment at 10.0%; underemployment 19.3%... Who do you believe? ] … particularly that huge fudge factor; viz., that ubiquitous 'stopped looking' category … granted there are some 'window-dressing' jobs created at huge uneconomic cost with the reality going something like this: government give contract to company that will cover the costs of the domestic jobs created using funds they don't really have (borrowed, one way or another, and piled on to the already insurmountable debt of a nation that is already defacto bankrupt), to produce goods which could be produced better and cheaper elsewhere (there isn't anything that can't be produced outside this country better, more efficiently, and cheaper). This is doubly inflationary since, first, the goods are uneconomically more costly, and second, whether borrowed or printed, the increased paper and lesser real value thereof is also inflationary. That said, I don't even believe their headline number and the unemployment rate they give is irrelevant and wholly inaccurate (that 'stopped looking fudge factor', etc.). Then there is the b*** s*** concerning treasury turning a profit on the (ongoing fed / pomo / wall street) bailouts that taxpayers have and will continue to pay for in higher prices from oil to grains to other commodities to fewer jobs, now and in the future. There is no modern day alchemy that 'spins more paper into gold'. That value has to come from some place; viz., you! Light Volume Rally Continues: Dave's Daily ' ...The Fed has injected $500 billion (another $7B in POMO Wednesday) to the financial system since January 2011 and that wave of liquidity is overwhelming most thoughtful analysis... Sure it's the end of the quarter and a jam-job to close things out puts a smile on investors' faces and bonuses in portfolio managers' pockets. Painting the tape and window dressing is against the law … ADP data has misled before but Wall Street is awash with cash from on high and finds little other place to invest beyond stocks...' M&A, Ben Resuscitate Bulls: Dave's Daily 'If you can keep interest rates this low this long, its inevitable cheap financing can allow companies to start cobbling each other up. Further Ben's policies allow companies like IBM to sell bonds at 1% and buy back shares with the proceeds (total paper bubble-scam). POMO is occurring almost daily and Primary Dealers can buy back their shares and pay dividends with what essentially is taxpayer money--nifty trick eh? With all the geopolitical and nuclear events going on little noticed was Fed "stress tests" of financial institutions to see if they were healthy enough to buy back shares and pay dividends. Making the matter sinister and less transparent is their gag order on the entire process. The Fed also has some toxic waste they'd like to sell you’ … 19 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Is At The Heart Of Our Economic Problems Most Americans don't understand what the Fed Reserve is or why it is at the heart of our economic problems.

More Americans work for the government than in manufacturing, farming, fishing, forestry, mining and utilities combined Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million).

What’s your take on U.S.’s employment situation? (Washington Post) [ I don't believe a word they say; nor does Denninger ... More Americans work for the government than in manufacturing, farming, fishing, forestry, mining and utilities combined

Employment Report: Clear Trend Change Absence Denninger 'From the Bureau Of Lies And Scams (BLS): '...

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?get_gallerynr=1415

(Chart)

How about the workweek and salaries?

In March, average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 34.3 hours in March. The manufacturing workweek for all employees edged down by 0.1 hour to 40.5 hours, while factory overtime was unchanged at 3.3 hours. .. average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls were unchanged at $22.87. ..

No help here. No increase in hours worked and no hourly earnings improvement either. For production and non-supervisory workers (those where price increases really hurt) they saw a bit of a decline. This is quite-bad news; note that the average annual wage for these workers is $38,600 pre-tax. That's materially under the average worker's income used in the BLS CPI tables, and it is those who have incomes under the median that experience the worst of income allocation shifts into non-discretionary purchases such as food, energy and medical..(bad).. given the price inflation that is clearly-evident in the PPI since August. These price increases are now going to start showing up on the store shelf over the next couple of months. We should also see the impact of these PPI changes being emitted from the rear end of the economy (that is, the business end that hurts you, the consumer) in the 1st quarter earnings reports beginning in earnest on the 11th.

Let's go look at our numbers and see if there's a "there" there.

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?get_gallerynr=1417

(Chart)

That's small improvement. I guess you can say it's not another turn-down.

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?get_gallerynr=1416

(Chart)

The number of employed ticked up a bit. That's positive. But it did last year too, only to flag off as we got into the summer.

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?get_gallerynr=1419

(Chart)

"Not in labor force", annualized, isn't any good. Yes, the monthly number looks good, but there are seasonal effects. .. - we're losing participation. Permanently.

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?get_gallerynr=1418

(Chart)

..

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?get_gallerynr=1420

(Chart)

..Positive change? Where? This is the root of the problem - participation, as a percentage of the workforce, continues to decline. This in turn means that the budgetary pressures will not come off. ..

What this all boils down to is that job growth is insufficient to support the economy on its own. Yet the ability to keep writing hot checks to the tune of $1.7 trillion a year or more to support a fake "recovery" is not infinite...

Jobs report better than expected … April fools … you got to be to believe anything they say, desperate as they are [ Drudgereport: GALLUP: Unemployment at 10.0%; underemployment 19.3%... Who do you believe? ] … particularly that huge fudge factor; viz., that ubiquitous 'stopped looking' category … granted there are some 'window-dressing' jobs created at huge uneconomic cost with the reality going something like this: government give contract to company that will cover the costs of the domestic jobs created using funds they don't really have (borrowed, one way or another, and piled on to the already insurmountable debt of a nation that is already defacto bankrupt), to produce goods which could be produced better and cheaper elsewhere (there isn't anything that can't be produced outside this country better, more efficiently, and cheaper). This is doubly inflationary since, first, the goods are uneconomically more costly, and second, whether borrowed or printed, the increased paper and lesser real value thereof is also inflationary. That said, I don't even believe their headline number and the unemployment rate they give is irrelevant and wholly inaccurate (that 'stopped looking fudge factor', etc.). Then there is the b*** s*** concerning treasury turning a profit on the (ongoing fed / pomo / wall street) bailouts that taxpayers have and will continue to pay for in higher prices from oil to grains to other commodities to fewer jobs, now and in the future. There is no modern day alchemy that 'spins more paper into gold'. That value has to come from some place; viz., you! Light Volume Rally Continues: Dave's Daily ' ...The Fed has injected $500 billion (another $7B in POMO Wednesday) to the financial system since January 2011 and that wave of liquidity is overwhelming most thoughtful analysis... Sure it's the end of the quarter and a jam-job to close things out puts a smile on investors' faces and bonuses in portfolio managers' pockets. Painting the tape and window dressing is against the law … ADP data has misled before but Wall Street is awash with cash from on high and finds little other place to invest beyond stocks...' M&A, Ben Resuscitate Bulls: Dave's Daily 'If you can keep interest rates this low this long, its inevitable cheap financing can allow companies to start cobbling each other up. Further Ben's policies allow companies like IBM to sell bonds at 1% and buy back shares with the proceeds (total paper bubble-scam). POMO is occurring almost daily and Primary Dealers can buy back their shares and pay dividends with what essentially is taxpayer money--nifty trick eh? With all the geopolitical and nuclear events going on little noticed was Fed "stress tests" of financial institutions to see if they were healthy enough to buy back shares and pay dividends. Making the matter sinister and less transparent is their gag order on the entire process. The Fed also has some toxic waste they'd like to sell you’ … 19 Reasons Why The Federal Reserve Is At The Heart Of Our Economic Problems Most Americans don't understand what the Fed Reserve is or why it is at the heart of our economic problems. When Americans get into discussions about the economy, most of them still blame either the Democrats or Republicans for inflation, for the housing crash, for our rampant unemployment and for the national debt. The Economic Collapse]

More Americans work for the government than in manufacturing, farming, fishing, forestry, mining and utilities combined Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million).

Go to following pages for above links:
http://www.albertpeia.com/currentopics2ndqtr10108.htm
http://www.albertpeia.com
http://www.albertpeia.com/alresume.htm

http://www.albertpeia.com/wallstreetlunacy2ndqtr10108.htm

http://www.scribd.com/alpeia

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