Business / Economic / Financial

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Yes … it’s official … a blazing full moon … and the effects on the lunatic frauds on wall street, among others, are clearly evident. This is an especially great time to Sell / Take Profits since there is much, much worse to come! ( They’re just suckin’ you in with debased dollar, inflated earnings and depressed P/E multiples thereby, insurmountable debt and stock bubble therefrom, diverting attention from their huge fraud accomplis with trillions of the worthless paper / toxic asset results of same now marked to anything as per legislated FASB rule change! ) ( These lower dollar, hyperinflationary currency manipulations / translations to froth paper stocks, and insurmountable debt will end quite badly as in last crash and worse! )

Jeffrey Saut: 'Do You Sincerely Want to Be Rich?'Excerpt from Raymond James strategist Jeffrey Saut's latest essay (published Monday, December 20th):

“Do you have the mental fortitude to accept huge gains?”“This comment usually gets a hearty laugh, which merely goes to show how little most people have determined it actually to be a problem. But consider how many times has the following sequence of events occurred? For a full year, you trade futures contracts, making $1000 here, losing $1500 there, making $3000 here and losing $2000 there. Once again, you enter a trade because your (trading) method told you to do so. Within a week, you’re up $4000. Your friend/partner/acquaintance/broker/advisor calls you and, looking out only for your welfare, tells you to take your profit. You have guts, though, and you wait. The following week, your position is up $8000, the best gain you have ever experienced. ‘Get out!’ says your friend. You sweat, still hoping for further gains. The next Monday, your contract opens limit (down) against you. Your friend calls and says, ‘I told you so. You got greedy. But hey, you’re still way up on the trade. Get out tomorrow.’ The next day, on the opening, you exit the trade, taking a $5000 profit. It’s your biggest profit of the year, and you click your heels, smiling gratefully, proud of yourself. Then, day after day for the next six months, you watch the market continue to go in the direction of your original trade. You try to find another entry point and continue to miss. At the end of six months, your method finally, quietly, calmly says, ‘Get out.’ You check the figures and realize that your initial entry, if held, would have netted $450,000.”“So what was your problem? Simply that you had allowed yourself, unconsciously, to define your ‘normal’ range of profit and loss. When the big trade finally came along, you lacked the self esteem to take all it promised . . . who were you to shoot for such huge gains? Why should you deserve more than your best trade of the year? Then you abandoned both (trading) method and discipline. To win the game, make sure that you understand why you’re in it. The big moves in markets only come once or twice a year. Those are the ones which will pay you for all the work, fear, sweat, and aggravation of the previous years. Don’t miss them for reasons other than those required by your objectively defined method. The IRS categorizes capital gains as ‘unearned income,’ that’s baloney. It’s hard to make money in the market. Every time you make, you richly deserve. Don’t ever forget that.”

... Robert Prechter – the Elliott Wave Theorist (1992) [ Dow 1000? Robert Prechter Thinks So Prechter Reiterrates Call For Dow 1,000, Even As Surging Gold And Plunging Dollar Leave Much Credibility To Be Desired Bulls Go to Extremes: Don't Buy the "Breakout", Sell It, Prechter Says Russell: This Is One Of The Largest Tops In Stock Market History My old friend, Bob Prechter, is talking about Dow 400. I used to think this was an absurd joke. I no longer think it’s a joke. The ultimate result will be a primary bear market shocking in duration and extent. …’ Robert R. Prechter Jr. is author of a number of newsletters and books including “Elliott Wave Principle” (1978) in which he predicted the super bull market of the 1980s; “At the Crest of the Tidal Wave – A Forecast of the Great Bear Market” (1995) in which he predicted a slow motion economic earthquake, brought about by a great asset mania, that would register 11 on the financial Richter scale causing a collapse of historic proportions; and “Conquer the Crash: You can Survive and Prosper in a Deflationary Depression” (2002) in which he described the economic cataclysm that we are just beginning to experience and advised how to position one’s self financially during that period of time.
Depression is Imminent
The Dow Jones Industrial Average will go down to at least 1000, most likely to below 777 which was the starting point of its mania back in August 1982, and quite likely drop below 400 at one or more times during the bear market. ]

“Do you sincerely want to be rich?!”What a great question! It’s a question I ponder this time of year as I reflect on the year gone by. This year that question leaped out while studying the history of buying stampedes. Recall, the current stampede is now 77 sessions in length, which eclipses the longest such skein recorded in my notes of some 45 years. While reviewing the 1987 upside stampede, into the August 1987 peak, I rediscovered the aforementioned quote from Robert Prechter. It’s an excellent quip. Virtually everybody can identify with it.On the surface the question seems laughable; who can’t accept huge gains? But in order to set yourself up for such gains you have to possess the courage to take an oversize position and maybe even leverage it. That kind of risk takes stomach and fortitude. Many times I have waited for the right moment, the big move, and decided against it. Maybe it was because I chickened out. While I often rationalized the hesitation away, the real reason I did not act was the emotional strain.Yet, I know myself and have learned that emotional actions are failures most of the time. What one has to do is be able to step outside of themselves in an objective fashion. When you do that, it’s kind of like seeing things in slow motion. You are calm, objective, and can see ahead, perceiving the proper sequence of events. You just know you’re right and you act......I bring these thoughts up today because it’s very human to look back after this September 1st to December 18th “buying stampede” and say, “If I hadda . . . !” If I hadda bought that stock, that option, that index, in size, etc. . . . ! It’s painful. But, post mortems help you learn in this business. I’ve learned that history repeats itself in the financial markets, despite changing players and changing events. You have to identify the patterns, and then you have to possess the courage to act, to believe in your own discipline …That said, there are signs that the current rally is long of tooth, suggesting the potential for a January “air pocket.” Furthermore, there is precedent for that. In 1981 the SPX suffered a 5% downside “air pocket.” Again in 1990 there was a 7% “hit.” In fact, January 2010 saw a 4% hiccup. Accordingly, while I still believe the upside should be favored into year-end, I am starting to consider some downside hedge “bets” to reduce the risk in portfolios.’

Elvis, Nixon And The New Normal McSherry ‘It was 40 years ago today On this date forty years ago, December 21, 1970, in a bizarre meeting of pop culture icons, Elvis Presley met with President Richard Nixon after ‘The King’ appeared unannounced at the gates of the Executive Mansion and handed the guard on duty a 5-page handwritten letter requesting a meeting with the president.Elvis presented the president with a commemorative Colt .45 pistol during the meeting for some reason, and according to notes of the meeting taken by Nixon aide Egil Krogh, Presley told the president that he thought the Beatles were a “real force for anti-American spirit” (not to mention having put a serious dent in the King’s record sales. He was probably resentful of their role in his banishment to Vegas).Elvis also disclosed that he had been studying “Communist brainwashing and the drug culture for over ten years.” At least the second claim was not hyperbole! After the meeting, Elvis got what he was after: a ceremonial appointment as a “Federal Agent at Large” in the war against drugs. I wonder if the badge helped him fill all of the prescriptions he obtained while under the care of the acquiescent Dr. Nick.Elvis was such an important cultural figure in American history that two versions of him co-exist in the pantheon of Pop Culture Gods. The one we all prefer to remember is the cool, leather-clad rockabilly version that dramatically burst upon the world stage in the 1950s, but the overweight, caped Vegas version still has a hold on the popular imagination. Together they symbolize a peculiarly American version of a Shakespearian tragedy.While it will be sometime before we know if the upcoming year is filled with scintillating versions of “Hound Dog” or turgid versions of “In The Ghetto,” we can at least run with the metaphor for the rest of this blog entry. After a decade in which a debt-fueled spree caused the American economy to become as bloated as the late-period Vegas Elvis after a night spent bingeing on amphetamines and fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches, it should have come to little surprise to any of us that the post-housing bubble crash was so painful to endure. But now American corporations have become as lean as the leather-clad Elvis seen during his famous televised “comeback” special in 1968 and investors can’t help falling in love with the thought that the so-called “new normal” may not be quite as depressing as some of the popularizers of that phrase have been predicting.Reluctant buyers appear to have decided that it’s now or never and have been jumping into the market in the anticipation that improving economic conditions will result in an earnings bonanza for said corporations.Many suspicious minds, scarred by the experiences of the past two years are having a hard time buying into the notion of a “melt-up” in the market, but the indexes are currently pressing up against a number of resistance levels and an upside breakout could cause the shorts to check into Heartbreak Hotel. The recovery of the service sector, currently said to make up nearly two-thirds of the American economy, will be the key to improved GDP growth and investors would be wise to key an eye on related metrics.Services (think Elvis’coterie of assorted “hangers-on”) tend to recover later in the cycle than durable goods and if the pattern plays out as it has in past recoveries, we could be on a verge of another leg up. Anecdotal evidence supports the thesis that he wealth effect caused by a rising market is encouraging consumers to spend during this holiday season. Can it be long before businesses large and small begin to reap the benefits of increased consumer spending? Judging by the increasing number of prognosticators who are predicting a strong rally, we all could be headed for Graceland in 2011. Thank you very much.’

California City Threatens to Shut Off Street Lights Due to Budget Crunch

WikiLeaks Founder: We Have Enough Information To Make An Exec At A Major Bank Resign Huffington Post | An upcoming data dump by WikiLeaks will be damaging enough that an executive at a major American bank will resign, the organization’s founder Julian Assange said in a recent interview.

60 million American people’s jobs, pensions and property are moving into the hands of the already rich Before It’s News | And that’s just the beginning: Paul Krugman’s Trashing of Ron Paul is “All in a day’s work for the man whose name disgraces the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics.”

$2 trillion municipal bond debt crisis could bring down 100 US cities, analyst warns Meredith Whitney, a financial analyst who runs her own consulting firm and correctly predicted the major debt fallout of Citigroup, warned in a little-reported on interview Sunday that as many as 100 US cities face default on their municipal bonds.Raw Story | A new disaster is looming, according to a prominent market research analyst.

Julian Assange Says He Has Enough Material To Make The Bosses Of A Major Bank Resign Julian Assange has enough material to make the bosses of a major bank resign, he told a Times of London reporter.

Government Waste: 20 Of The Craziest Things That The U.S. Government Is Spending Money On You are not going to believe some of the things that the U.S. government is spending money on. According to a shocking new report, U.S. taxpayer money is being spent to study World of Warcraft, to study how Americans find love on the Internet, and to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam.

Is JP Morgan Shifting Its Silver And Gold Shorts To Non-US Domiciled, And Thus Unregulatable, Banks? Going through recent bullion bank shorting information, Adrian Douglas has stumbled across a nugget that may explain the sudden willingness of JPM to admit to the FT, via proxies as obviously the bank would never expose itself to even remote market manipulation claims, that it has collapsed its silver short.

16 Shocking Facts About The Student Loan Debt Bubble And The Great College Education Scam As you read this, there are over 18 million students enrolled at the nearly 5,000 colleges and universities currently in operation across the United States. Many of these institutions of higher learning are now charging $20,000, $30,000 or even $40,000 a year for tuition and fees.

State of Disaster In July, WealthCycles.com published a blog piece called The Risk of Your State that highlighted little pieces of the slow-moving train wreck that is the fiscal situation of the U.S. states. At that point, Illinois was in a deep mess.

Tipping Point: 25 Signs That The Coming Financial Collapse Is Now Closer Then Ever The financial collapse that so many of us have been anticipating is seemingly closer then ever. Over the past several weeks, there have been a host of ominous signs for the U.S. economy.

The Economic Collapse
Dec 17, 2010

The financial collapse that so many of us have been anticipating is seemingly closer then ever. Over the past several weeks, there have been a host of ominous signs for the U.S. economy. Yields on U.S. Treasuries have moved up rapidly and Moody’s is publicly warning that it may have to cut the rating on U.S. government debt soon. Mortgage rates are also moving up aggressively. The euro and the U.S. dollar both look incredibly shaky. Jobs continue to be shipped out of the United States at a blistering pace as our politicians stand by and do nothing. Confidence in U.S. government debt around the globe continues to decline. State and local governments that are drowning in debt across the United States are savagely cutting back on even essential social services and are coming up with increasingly “creative” ways of getting more money out of all of us. Meanwhile, tremor after tremor continues to strike the world financial system. So does this mean that we have almost reached a tipping point? Is the world on the verge of a major financial collapse?

Let’s hope not, but with each passing week the financial news just seems to get eve worse. Not only is U.S. government debt spinning wildly toward a breaking point, but many U.S. states (such as California) are in such horrific financial condition that they are beginning to resemble banana republics.

But it is not just the United States that is in trouble. Nightmarish debt problems in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Belgium and several other European nations threaten to crash the euro at any time. In fact, many economists are now openly debating which will collapse first – the euro or the U.S. dollar.

Sadly, this is the inevitable result of constructing a global financial system on debt. All debt bubbles eventually collapse. Currently we are living in the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world, and when this one bursts it is going to be a disaster of truly historic proportions.

So will we reach a tipping point soon? Well, the following are 25 signs that the financial collapse is rapidly getting closer….

#1 The official U.S. unemployment rate has not been beneath 9 percent since April 2009.

#2 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are currently 6.3 million vacant homes in the United States that are either for sale or for rent.

#3 It is being projected that the U.S. trade deficit with China could hit 270 billion dollars for the entire year of 2010.

#4 Back in 2000, 7.2 percent of blue collar workers were either unemployed or underemployed. Today that figure is up to 19.5 percent.

#5 The Chinese government has accumulated approximately $2.65 trillion in total foreign exchange reserves. They have drained this wealth from the economies of other nations (such as the United States) and instead of reinvesting all of it they are just sitting on much of it. This is creating tremendous imbalances in the global economy.

#6 Since the year 2000, we have lost 10% of our middle class jobs. In the year 2000 there were approximately 72 million middle class jobs in the United States but today there are only about 65 million middle class jobs.

#7 The United States now employs about the same number of people in manufacturing as it did back in 1940. Considering the fact that we had 132 million people living in this country in 1940 and that we have well over 300 million people living in this country today, that is a very sobering statistic.

#8 According to CoreLogic, U.S. housing prices have now declined for three months in a row.

#9 The average rate on a 30 year fixed rate mortgage soared 11 basis points just this past week. As mortgage rates continue to push higher it is going to make it even more difficult for American families to afford homes.

#10 22.5 percent of all residential mortgages in the United States were in negative equity as of the end of the third quarter of 2010.

#11 The U.S. monetary base has more than doubled since the beginning of the most recent recession.

#12 U.S. Treasury yields have been rising steadily during the 4th quarter of 2010 and recently hit a six-month high.

#13 Incoming governor Jerry Brown is scrambling to find $29 billion more to cut from the California state budget. The following quote from Brown about the desperate condition of California state finances is not going to do much to inspire confidence in California’s financial situation around the globe….

“We’ve been living in fantasy land. It is much worse than I thought. I’m shocked.”

#14 24.3 percent of the residents of El Centro, California are currently unemployed.

#15 The average home in Merced, California has declined in value by 63 percent over the past four years.

#16 Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has come up with a new way to save money. He wants to cut 20 percent of Detroit off from essential social services such as road repairs, police patrols, functioning street lights and garbage collection.

#17 The second most dangerous city in the United States – Camden, New Jersey – is about to lay off about half its police in a desperate attempt to save money.

#18 In 2010, 55 percent of Americans between the ages of 60 and 64 were in the labor market. Ten years ago, that number was just 47 percent. More older Americans than ever find that they have to keep working just to survive.

#19 Back in 1998, the United States had 25 percent of the world’s high-tech export market and China had just 10 percent. Ten years later, the United States had less than 15 percent and China’s share had soared to 20 percent.

#20 The U.S. government budget deficit increased to a whopping $150.4 billion last month, which represented the biggest November budget deficit on record.

#21 The U.S. government is somehow going to have to roll over existing debt and finance new debt that is equivalent to 27.8 percent of GDP in 2011.

#22 The United States had been the leading consumer of energy on the globe for about 100 years, but this past summer China took over the number one spot.

#23 According to an absolutely stunning new poll, 40 percent of all U.S. doctors plan to bail out of the profession over the next three years.

#24 As 2007 began, there were just over 1 million Americans that had been unemployed for half a year or longer. Today, there are over 6 million Americans that have been unemployed for half a year or longer.

#25 All over the United States, local governments have begun instituting “police response fees”. For example, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has come up with a plan under which a fee of $365 would be charged if police are called to respond to an automobile accident where no injuries are involved. If there are injuries as a result of the crash that is going to cost extra.

16 Nightmarish Economic Trends To Watch Carefully In 2011 The American Dream Dec 15, 2010 ‘If you only watch the “economic pundits” on television, it can be very confusing to figure out exactly what is happening with the U.S. economy. One pundit will pull out a couple statistics that got a little bit better over the past month and claim that we have entered a time of solid recovery. Another pundit will pull out a couple statistics that got a little worse over the past month and claim that we are headed for trouble. So what is the truth? Well, if you really want to get a clear idea of what is really going on you have to look at the long-term trends. There are some economic trends which just keep getting worse year after year after year, and it is those trends that tell the real story of the decline of our economic system.

As you examine the long-term trends, you quickly come to realize that the U.S. is trapped in an endless spiral of debt, the middle class is being wiped out, the U.S. dollar is being destroyed and America is rapidly becoming a post-industrial wasteland.

Posted below are 16 nightmarish economic trends to watch carefully in 2011. It is becoming exceedingly apparent that unless something is done rapidly we are heading for an economic collapse of unprecedented magnitude….

#1 Do you want to see something scary? Just check out the chart below. Since the beginning of the economic downturn, the U.S. monetary base has more than doubled. But don’t worry – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has promised us that this could never cause inflation. In fact, Bernanke says that we need to inject even more dollars into the economy. So if you are alarmed by the chart below, you are just being irrational according to Bernanke….

[chart]

#2 Thousands of our factories, millions of our jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars of our national wealth continue to be shipped overseas. In 1985, the U.S. trade deficit with China was 6 million dollars for the entire year. In the month of August alone, the U.S. trade deficit with China was over 28 billion dollars. Nobel economist Robert W. Fogel of the University of Chicago is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040 if current trends continue.

#3 The United States is rapidly becoming a post-industrial wasteland. Back in 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of all U.S. economic output. In 2008, it represented only 11.5 percent and it continues to fall. Sadly, the truth is that America is being deindustrialized. As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing. The last time that less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941.

#4 The number of Americans that have been out of work for an extended period of time has absolutely exploded over the last few years. As 2007 began, there were just over 1 million Americans that had been unemployed for half a year or longer. Today, there are over 6 million Americans that have been unemployed for half a year or longer.

#5 The middle class continues to be squeezed out of existence. According to a poll taken in 2009, 61 percent of Americans ”always or usually” live paycheck to paycheck. That was up substantially from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.

#6 The number of Americans living in poverty is absolutely skyrocketing. 42.9 million Americans are now on food stamps, and one out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one anti-poverty program run by the federal government. Unfortunately, many of those that have been hardest hit by this economic downturn have been children. According to one new study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.

#7 Many American families have been pushed beyond the breaking point during this economic downturn. Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008. The final number for 2010 is expected to be even higher.

#8 The U.S. real estate market continues to stagnate. During the third quarter of 2010, 67 percent of mortgages in Nevada were “underwater”, 49 percent of mortgages in Arizona were “underwater” and 46 percent of mortgages in Florida were “underwater”. So what happens if home prices go down even more?

#9 More elderly Americans than ever are being forced to put off retirement and continue working. In 2010, 55 percent of Americans between the ages of 60 and 64 were in the labor market. Ten years ago, that number was just 47 percent. Unfortunately, it looks like this problem will only get worse in the years ahead. In America today, approximately half of all workers have less than $2000 saved up for retirement.

#10 In the United States today, there are simply far too many retirees and not nearly enough workers to support them. Back in 1950 each retiree’s Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 workers. Today, each retiree’s Social Security benefit is paid for by approximately 3.3 workers. By 2025 it is projected that there will be approximately two workers for each retiree.

#11 Financial assets continue to become concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. For example, the “big four” U.S. banks (Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo) had approximately 22 percent of all deposits in FDIC-insured institutions back in 2000. As of the middle of 2009 that figure was up to 39 percent.

#12 The Federal Reserve has been destroying the value of the U.S. dollar for decades. Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the U.S. dollar has lost over 95 percent of its purchasing power. An item that cost $20.00 in 1970 would cost you $112.35 today. An item that cost $20.00 in 1913 would cost you $440.33 today.

#13 Commodity prices continue to soar into the stratosphere. Ten years ago, the price of a barrel of oil hovered around 20 to 30 dollars most of the time. Today, the price of oil is rapidly closing in on 100 dollars a barrel and there are now fears that it could soon go much higher than that.

#14 Federal government spending is completely and totally out of control. The U.S. government budget deficit increased to a whopping $150.4 billion last month, which represented the biggest November deficit on record. But our politicians can’t seem to break their addiction to debt. In fact, Democrats are trying to ram through a 1,924 page, 1.1 trillion dollar spending bill in the final days of the lame-duck session of Congress before the Republicans take control of the House of Representatives next year.

#15 The U.S. national debt is rapidly closing in on 14 trillion dollars. It is more than 13 times larger than it was just 30 short years ago. According to an official U.S. Treasury Department report to Congress, the U.S. national debt is projected to climb to an estimated $19.6 trillion by 2015.

#16 Unfortunately, the official government numbers grossly understate the horrific nature of the crisis we are facing. John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics has calculated that if the federal government would have used GAAP accounting standards to measure the federal budget deficit for 2009, it would have been approximately 8.8 trillion dollars. Not only that, but John Williams now says that U.S. government debt is so wildly out of control that it is mathematically impossible for us to “grow” our way out of it….

The government’s finances not only are out of control, but the actual deficit is not containable. Put into perspective, if the government were to raise taxes so as to seize 100% of all wages, salaries and corporate profits, it still would be showing an annual deficit using GAAP accounting on a consistent basis. In like manner, given current revenues, if it stopped spending every penny (including defense and homeland security) other than for Social Security and Medicare obligations, the government still would be showing an annual deficit. Further, the U.S. has no potential way to grow out of this shortfall.

The more one examines the U.S. economic situation, the more depressing it becomes. The U.S. financial system is trapped inside a horrific debt spiral and we are headed straight for economic oblivion.

If our leaders attempt to interrupt the debt spiral it will plunge our economy into a depression. If our leaders attempt to keep the debt spiral going for several more years it will just make the eventual crash even worse. Either way, we are headed for a financial implosion that will be truly historic.

The debt-fueled good times that we have been enjoying for the last several decades are rapidly coming to an end. Unfortunately for the tens of millions of Americans that are already suffering, our economic problems are only going to get worse in the years ahead.’

Jobless Recovery?: 25 Unemployment Statistics That Are Almost Too Depressing To Read ‘… Unemployment is up again! That’s right – even though Wall Street is swimming in cash and the Obama administration is declaring that “the recession is over”, the U.S. unemployment rate has gone even higher. So are you enjoying the jobless recovery? Economic Collapse Blog Dec 4, 2010 ‘Guess what? Unemployment is up again! That’s right – even though Wall Street is swimming in cash and the Obama administration is declaring that “the recession is over”, the U.S. unemployment rate has gone even higher ... Times are really, really tough and unfortunately the long-term outlook is very bleak. We should have compassion on those who are out of work right now, because soon many of us may join them.

The following are 25 unemployment statistics that are almost too depressing to read….

#1 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. unemployment rate for November was 9.8 percent. This was up from 9.6 percent in October, and it continues a trend of depressingly high unemployment rates. The official unemployment number has been at 9.5 percent or higher for well over a year at this point.

#2 In November 2006, the “official” U.S. unemployment rate was just 4.5 percent.

#3 Most economists had been expecting the U.S. economy to add about 150,000 jobs in November. Instead, it only added 39,000.

#4 In the United States today, there are over 15 million people who are “officially” considered to be unemployed for statistical purposes. But everyone knows that the “real” number is even much larger than that.

#5 As 2007 began, there were just over 1 million Americans that had been unemployed for half a year or longer. Today, there are over 6 million Americans that have been unemployed for half a year or longer.

#6 The number of “persons not in the labor force” in the United States recently set another new all-time record.

#7 It now takes the average unemployed American over 33 weeks to find a job.

#8 When you throw in “discouraged workers” and “underemployed workers”, the “real” unemployment rate in the state of California is actually about 22 percent.

#9 In America today there are not nearly enough jobs for everyone. In fact, there are now approximately 5 unemployed Americans for every single job opening.

#10 According to The New York Times, Americans that have been unemployed for five weeks or less are three times more likely to find a new job in the coming month than Americans that have been unemployed for over a year.

#11 The U.S. economy would need to create 235,120 new jobs a month to get the unemployment rate down to pre-recession levels by 2016. Does anyone think that there is even a prayer that is going to happen?

#12 There are 9 million Americans that are working part-time for “economic reasons”. In other words, those Americans would gladly take full-time jobs if they could get them, but all they have been able to find is part-time work.

#13 In 2009, total wages, median wages, and average wages all declined in the United States.

#14 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing. The last time that less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941.

#15 The United States has lost at least 7.5 million jobs since the recession began.

#16 Today, only about 40 percent of Ford Motor Company’s 178,000 workers are employed in North America, and a big percentage of those jobs are in Canada and Mexico.

#17 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of U.S. economic output. In 2008, it represented 11.5 percent.

#18 Earlier this year, one poll found that 28% of all American households had at least one member that was looking for a full-time job.

#19 In the United States today, over 18,000 parking lot attendants have college degrees.

#20 The United States has lost a staggering 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#21 As the employment situation continues to stagnate, millions of American families have decided to cut back on things such as insurance coverage. For example, the percentage of American households that have life insurance coverage is at its lowest level in 50 years.

#22 Unless Congress acts, and there is no indication that is going to happen, approximately 2 million Americans will stop receiving unemployment checks over the next couple of months.

#23 A poll that was released by the Pew Research Center back in June discovered that an astounding 55 percent of the U.S. labor force has experienced either unemployment, a pay decrease, a reduction in hours or an involuntary move to part-time work since the economic downturn began.

#24 According to Richard McCormack, the United States has lost over 42,000 factories (and counting) since 2001.

#25 In the United States today, 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees.

But this is what we get for creating the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world. For decades we have been digging a deeper hole for ourselves by going into increasingly larger amounts of debt. In America today, our entire economy is based on debt. Even our money is debt. We were fools if we ever thought this could go on forever. Just think about it. Have you ever gone out and run up a bunch of debt? It can be a lot of fun sitting behind the wheel of a new car, running your credit cards up to the limit and buying a beautiful big house that you cannot afford. But in the end what happens? It always catches up with you. Well, our collective debt is starting to catch up with us. There is a sea of red ink on every level of American society. It is only a matter of time before it destroys our economy. IF YOU THINK THAT THINGS ARE BAD NOW, JUST WAIT. THINGS ARE GOING TO GET A WHOLE LOT WORSE. A HORRIFIC ECONOMIC COLLAPSE IS COMING, AND IT IS GOING TO BE VERY, VERY PAINFUL.’

Howard Davidowitz on the Economy: "Here Are the Numbers ... WE'RE BROKE!" 11-25-10 ‘The U.S. economy "is a complete disaster," Howard Davidowitz declared here in July, the most recent in a string of dire predictions from Tech Ticker's most entertaining guest.On the eve of Thanksgiving, I asked Davidowitz if he had any regrets, or was ready to throw in the towel given recent signs of economic revival. Are you kidding me? "Here are the numbers...we're broke," Davidowitz declares, noting the U.S. government goes $5 billion deeper into debt every day and is facing $1 trillion-plus annual deficits for the next decade. "In other words, we're bankrupt."As with the economy, Davidowitz is unwaveringly consistent in his views on President Obama, calling him "deranged, dysfunctional and discredited."Results of the midterm election show "the people of this country think we are in a catastrophe," he says. "I'm with them."Check the accompanying video for more of Howard's unfettered opinions and stay tuned for additional clips from this interview. And...Happy Thanksgiving! Aaron Task is the host of Tech Ticker. You can follow him on Twitter at @atask or email him at altask@yahoo.com’

Timid Tuesday: Is it Safe? 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! ‘

17 Things Worrying Investors Lloyd's Wall of Worry

Worry Count: 17

CHINA: 1,330,044,605 people can’t be wrong.

The PIIGS: Fasten your seatbelts. It’s gonna be a long, bumpy, expensive, weird, (insert your own adjective here) freak show of a ride.

CALIFORNIA AND THE OTHER 49 STATES: Not yet as dire as “The PIIGS”. Might I suggest the classier moniker of “The Prosciuttos” for the American basket-case states?

QE II: Gobble?

U.S. ECONOMY: The “Punky Brewster” of the global economic landscape.

UNEMPLOYMENT: Only thing worse than losing your job, losing your unemployment check. At least there’s the holiday season to cheer everyone up (read: heavy sarcasm).

TAXES: Praying to the Financial Market Gods that we don’t have another TARP-like vote fiasco.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION PART II: Still two years before the Pres. election and the peanut gallery is already pleading for a Hail Mary Pass to get them back in the game.

HFT: Instead of beating up these liquidity supplying traders, let’s honor them with their very own stock exchange. But wait -- with no retail saps to pick-off they will never get that Day 1 opening bell tick. Perfect.

XMAS 2010: As my professor friend Nick says, “Nowadays Americans are dining off of two menus – The Million Dollar and the $0.99 Cent.” And both are pissed about it.

CURRENCIES: Poor Mr. Greenback. Does someone need a hug?

HOUSING CRISIS: Price Stabilization – Are we there yet? Just a little bit more. Are we there yet? Just a little bit more. Are we there yet? Just a little bit more….

INFLATION/DEFLATION: Fed Chief Ben B. comes out swinging from his heels in defense of inflation promotion. Don’t punch yourself out as this one is likely to go the distance.

COMMODITIES: Corrected but still sky high; fortunately these prices are only affecting core, basic, life-sustaining necessities and sparing our electronic gadgets and plus-sized SUVs. Whew!

INSIDER TRADING: Another black eye for Hedge Funds. I estimate that makes black eye number 6,597.

INTEREST RATES: South Korea and China slowly turning up the dial to “11”. On the other hand the U.S. has removed the dial altogether. This never ends well….

NORTH KOREA: Here we go again.

'Huge' stock decline — but not yet MarketWatch - Brimelow ‘Commentary: Adens … ‘mega trend’ looks grim … The Adens expect a hyperinflationary collapse … ‘
Oh come on! Manipulated dollar decline with inflated earnings, stock prices thereby, etc., … we’ve seen this all before … the last few crashes … Jobless rate jumps to 9.8% as hiring slows (Washington Post) [ The reality is not a mystery! The nation’s been thrown under the bus for the greater good (wealth) of the very few (frauds on wall street, etc.); wall street giving out record bonuses from their accomplished fraud (with no-recession b.s. bernanke help) of $144 BILLION: Come on! This is gettin’ even more downright ridiculous (if that’s even possible)! Pending home foreclosure / distress sales up, oil prices (and oil stocks) up, debased dollar down, plus a little familiar ‘better than expected’ thrown in along with prospects of a ‘no-recession bernanke’ market-frothing bull session on 60 minutes and, voila, suckers’ rally into the close to keep the suckers suckered! What’s good for the frauds on wall street is bad for just about everyone else which includes the vast majority of people and businesses, domestically and globally, as current dollar manipulation / debasement ultimately results in higher costs and loss of purchasing power (ie., oil, etc.). Clearly, this is one of those fraudulent wealth transfers to the frauds on wall street et als which will ultimately be paid for by those who least are in a position to afford it, courtesy of the ever more worthless Weimar dollar, etc., inflating earnings, eps, lowering p/e multiples, etc., see infra. This is an especially great time to sell / take profits while you can since there's much worse to come! Previous: Rosy numbers on consumer sentiment, unemployment (far better than private forecasts) from the government prior to the holiday so-called ‘shop till you drop’? How can anyone believe anything they say? Najerian interviewed by Motek chimes in with the reason for good retail cheer; viz., people have stopped paying their mortgages and are using the funds to purchase retail goods; while Davidowitz adds that with record numbers of americans on food stamps, real unemployment at 17+, and wall street giving out record bonuses from their accomplished fraud (with no-recession b.s. bernanke help) of $144 BILLION … the high end stores / jewelers will do well … daaaaah! And, with insiders and wall street frauds selling into the bubble as preceded last crash, this is an especially great opportunity to sell / take profits! Suckers’ rally on light volume, full moon, and government complicity (false data / reports) to keep suckers suckered (easy for the wall street frauds to do with just a mouse click / push of the button – and, they know all those technical trade lines that are easy to program in this current phase of the scam/fraud with the debased dollar). Keep in mind, the totally mindless blather from the ‘cottage industries’ of and fraudulent wall street itself in talking up lower P/E multiples when the same is a direct result of the debasement of the dollar and the consequent manipulation / translation (not real, see Davis, infra) which preceded the financial crisis / last crash. Unemployment, trade, deficit, etc., numbers continue decidedly worse than expected along with other negative data (and in the ‘wrong direction’, that spin accorded ‘down but not as bad as before’ b* s* ) yet the market has rallied like no tomorrow with used home foreclosure / distressed sales, though abated owing to ‘foreclosuregate’, the other ‘heralded’ good news. Moreover, the dumbo lemmings of Europe have jumped on the fraudulent defacto bankrupt american crazy train propelled to the precipice also as if no tomorrow. This is about keeping the suckers sucked in with the help of a market-frothing pre-election debased dollar for favorable currency translation and paper (but not real when measured in, ie., gold, etc.) profits which preceded the last crisis, inflating a bubble as in the last crisis to facilitate the churn-and-earn, particularly with computerized (and high frequency) trades and which commissions they’ll get again on the way down. There is nothing to support these overbought stock prices, fundamentally or otherwise. These are desperate criminals ‘at work’. Even wall street shill, the senile Buffett is saying we’re still in a recession (depression) [ Davis: ‘… all profits are inflated by 10% (from falling, debased dollar) and that 10% is the E that gets divided from the P and gives us a much better price/multiple to hang our hats on and that gets investors to BUYBUYBUY …’ The bull market that never was / were beyond wall street b.s. when measured in gold ] This is a great opportunity to sell / take profits (these lower dollar, hyperinflationary currency manipulations / translations to froth paper stocks will end quite badly as in last crash)! This is a global depression. This is a secular bear market in a global depression. The past up moves were manipulated bull (s***) cycles (at best) in a secular bear market. This has been a typically manipulated bubble as has preceded the prior crashes with great regularity that the wall street frauds and insiders commission and sell into. This is a typical wall street ‘programmed computerized high-frequency churn and earn pass the hot potato scam / fraud as in prior crashes ( widely reported, high-frequency trading routinely accounts for more than 50% of daily U.S. equity trading volume and regularly approaches 70%. )’. This national decline, economic and otherwise, will not end until justice is served and the wall street frauds et als are criminally prosecuted, jailed, fined, and disgorgement imposed.The Stock Market's Long Decline Has Begun Smith ]

National / World

FCC approves controversial ‘Net Neutrality’ regulations Eric W. Dolan | By a 3-2 vote Tuesday, the FCC passed so-called “Net Neutrality” rules aimed at prohibiting ISPs from discriminating between Internet traffic.

Plan to Turn Post Office Trucks Into Stasi Data Collection Nodes Kurt Nimmo | Your friendly neighborhood postal person may be soon driving a high-tech data collection vehicle.

Wikileaks: A Big Dangerous US Government Con Job F. William Engdahl | It is almost too perfectly-scripted to be true.

Homeland Security’s Coming War Against 9/11 Truth Activists Kurt Nimmo | The term “white al-Qaeda” was created for a specific reason.

Plan to Turn Post Office Trucks Into Stasi Data Collection Nodes Forget the StreetView data vacuum scandal. If an idea proposed for the money hole known as the U.S. Post Office is adopted, your friendly neighborhood postal person may be soon driving a high-tech data collection vehicle that would rival anything Google put to use for the government.

FCC Approves Controversial ‘Net Neutrality’ Regulations By a 3-2 vote Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed so-called “Net Neutrality” rules aimed at prohibiting internet service providers (ISPs) from discriminating between Internet traffic.

Metro Randomly Inspects Passengers’ Bags Metro Police started randomly inspecting bags at the Braddock Road and College Park Metro stations Tuesday. Another woman, who did not object to the bag screening, was stopped for 45 seconds. She missed her train as her bag of Christmas presents was searched.

Holder Warns Of Threat Within: ‘Radical’ Citizens “The threat has changed from simply worrying about foreigners coming here, to worrying about people in the United States, American citizens — raised here, born here, and who for whatever reason, have decided that they are going to become radicalized and take up arms against the nation in which they were born,” he said.

You Are A Terrorist While the establishment constantly invokes the contrived terror threat as justification for the announcement that your every activity is being sent to federal fusion centers, those same fusion centers have been busy defining peaceful assembly, non-violent protest and criticism of the government as domestic terrorism. According to the government’s own definition of what constitutes terrorist activity – you are a terrorist.

Rev. Sharpton Calls for FCC Hearings On Talk Radio [ Truth be told, I don’t even listen to talk radio anymore (it’s already filtered and certainly not eye-opening); but, especially coming from ape sharpton, this is preposterous and dangerous! ]Democrat talk radio host and Baptist minister Al Sharpton called for Rush Limbaugh and other radio talk show hosts to be dragged before the FCC to answer questions. Sharpton told the Ed Show last Thursday he supports McCarthy-like hearings. He wants the agency to squelch the First Amendment of political opponent. Rev. Sharpton Calls for FCC Hearings On Talk Radio [ Come on … who takes ape sharpton seriously? Remember the Tawana, Bwana! Tawana Brawley In 1987, black teenager Tawana Brawley claimed that six white ... of the attackers by Miss Brawley's advisers: Maddox, the Rev ... Vernon Mason. While Miss Brawley refused to speak with… www.albertpeia.com/tawana.htm The Man With the Plan of Surge Surging www.albertpeia.com/42007newsposts.htm ] Kurt Nimmo | Federal agency encouraged to go after Obama’s enemies.

You Are A Terrorist Paul Joseph Watson | Being a “nice guy,” supporting Ron Paul and talking about the Constitution all signs of terror.

Assange claims “people affiliated with our organization have already been assassinated” BBC | Says accuser was “bamboozled into this by police and others.”

Pimco says ‘untenable’ policies will lead to eurozone break-up London Telegraph | Pimco, the world’s largest bond fund, has called on Greece, Ireland and Portugal to step outside the eurozone temporarily and restructure their debts unless the currency bloc agrees to a radical change of course.

AP: TOP 10 STORIES OF 2010... Crary, Ap National Writer – NEW YORK – The massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, triggered by a deadly blast at a rig used by BP, was the top news story of 2010, followed by the divisive health care overhaul, according to The Associated Press' annual poll of U.S. editors and news directors.The oil spill received 54 first-place votes out of 180 ballots cast for the top 10 stories. The health care bill was next, with 30 first-place votes. The U.S. election was third.In fourth place was the U.S. economy, which had been voted the top story of 2009.
Here are 2010's top 10 stories, in order:

1. _GULF OIL DISASTER: The April 20 explosion at a BP-leased rig killed 11 workers and unleashed a deep-sea spill that ultimately spewed at least 170 million gallons of crude into the Gulf. Consequences included devastation for fishing and tourism industries, a huge and costly cleanup effort, a management change at BP, and creation of a $20 billion fund to pay for damages.

2. _HEALTH CARE OVERHAUL: After bitter political wrangling, President Barack Obama was able to sign into law one of his major campaign promises — a $1 trillion health care overhaul intended to expand coverage to more Americans. But Republicans used public misgivings about parts of the plan as a springboard for election gains, and the overhaul faced a welter of lawsuits challenging its constitutionality.

3. _US ELECTIONS: President Obama called it a "shellacking" — an election in which the Republicans surged to a majority in the House of Representatives, and gained more governor's offices and legislative majorities. The Democrats were able to hang on to their edge in the Senate, leaving the U.S. with at least two years of divided government.

4. _US ECONOMY: Economists said the deepest recession since the Great Depression was over, and consumers began to spend more as the year neared a close. But the unemployment rate stayed well above 9 percent, and home prices were weighed down by foreclosures and sluggish demand.

5. _HAITI EARTHQUAKE: Already the Western Hemisphere's most destitute nation, Haiti was shattered by an earthquake on Jan. 12 that killed at least 230,000 and left millions homeless. Crucial reconstruction projects were slow to get started; disease and political instability added to the woes.

6. _TEA PARTY MOVEMENT: Though it lacked the trappings of traditional political organizations, the tea party movement had a profound impact on the 2010 election, influencing the stances of Republican leaders and enabling some maverick challengers to oust GOP establishment candidates in the primaries.

7. _CHILE MINE RESCUE: In a year of disasters and squabbles, this was a miraculous feel-good story. Trapped nearly a half-mile underground for 69 days after an Aug. 5 mine collapse, 33 Chilean miners were freed one-by-one while an entranced global audience watched on television.

8. _IRAQ: U.S. forces formally ended their combat role and looked ahead to planned withdrawal, while Iraqis endured months of bitter political haggling after an election that failed to heal Sunni-Shiite divisions.

9. _WIKILEAKS: First came the online postings of a huge batch of U.S. military documents from Iraq and Afghanistan, Then WikiLeaks started releasing a cache of classified State Department diplomatic cables, creating embarrassment for Washington in its dealings with other nations.

10. _AFGHANISTAN: After months of deliberation, President Obama ordered a troop surge in a major bid to turn the tide of the nearly 10-year-old war. Intense fighting pushed the Taliban out of some longtime strongholds, but the militants remained resilient, and Afghanistan remained beset by corruption and ineffectual government.

It was a year of dramatic and diverse news events. Among the stories which didn't make the top 10 were Arizona's enactment of a tough law against illegal immigration, the European fiscal crisis, a Supreme Court ruling freeing corporations and unions to fund election ads targeting candidates, floods in Pakistan that affected 20 million people, and the volcanic eruption in Iceland that caused trans-Atlantic air travel chaos."We wish we could have voted for a top 15 or 20, there were so many compelling stories this year," wrote news editor Larry Lockhart of the Casa Grande Dispatch in Arizona.Jessica Runnels Rourk, an editor at The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., said the health care overhaul was a catalyst for other major political events."Conservative anger over the law gave rise to the tea party movement, and the law itself became a symbol of the lack of bipartisanship in Congress that cost incumbents from both parties in November's elections," she noted on her ballot.’

Drudgereport: DEFICIT HITS RECORD... BLOWOUT: Government liabilities rose $2 trillion for year...PEOPLE: 308,745,538
DEBT: $13,868,461,000,000STATE OF THE NATION: Census shows slowing US growth...
GOP-leaning states pick up seats in Congress... NY, OH, IL, MA, NJ and PA lose seats... FCC Gives Government Power to Regulate Web...
Agency splits along party lines...
DeMint vows to reverse 'Internet takeover'... AP: TOP 10 STORIES OF 2010... MOODY'S May Cut US Rating on Tax Package... New spending bill totals $1.1 TRILLION!
Congress Job Approval Rating Worst in GALLUP History... FLASHBACK: Obama Promised 5-Day, Public Review of Bills Before Signing; Signs Tax Bill Within Hours of House Vote...
13 million get unexpected tax bill from 'tax credit'?
Pelosi skips vote on tax bill, then shuns signing ceremony...
House votes to extend gov't funding -- through Tuesday...
OBAMA FALLS TO 40% APPROVE IN FOXNEWS POLL... The FCC's Threat to Internet Freedom...
Dems play politics with 'net neutrality' vote...
'Sweeping new rules'...
REGULATE...
SHUT: Music Web Sites Dispute Legality of Their Closing...
UK ministers threaten: Censor web, or we will legislate 'to protect children'...
Plan to block all online porn...
Hugo Chavez defends plan for web regulations...
Venezuela tightens Internet regulation...

THEY'RE COMING FOR THE INTERNET!
JULIUS SEIZURE

$2 trillion debt crisis threatens to bring down 100 US cities...
States face $140 billion in budget shortfalls...
32 states borrow billions from feds to cover unemployment benefits...
Friedman: America the Stupid...

French AAA Grade at Risk as Downgrades Sweep Europe...

Oil Heads Toward $100...
Chavez defends plan for Internet regulations...
UK ministers threaten: Censor web, or we will legislate 'to protect children'...
The FCC's Threat to Internet Freedom...
Dems play politics with 'net neutrality' vote...
'Sweeping new rules for the Internet'... SKorea detains Chinese fishermen...
Security Council meets on tensions...
North Threatens More Attacks...
... says war would go nuclear
China warns of escalating arms race...

'Don't ask' repeal moves toward law...
DREAM OVER: Senate Blocks Bill for Illegal Immigrants...
Budget Brawl Looms in Congress...

Michelle wears $2,500 purchased dress to Christmas concert...
Senate Plans Weekend Votes on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' Amnesty Bill...
Senator: Gay ban tied to Russia treaty...
UN PLANS INTERNET REGULATION [ Those who can’t do … work at the u.n., in the u.s.; after all, for the first time in human history, the internet has for the most part enabled an unfettered look at the truth and truthful reasons for the unequivocally sad state of the world. That a supposed world body should support and potentially facilitate the encroachment upon such global communication is reason enough to dismantle such an already discredited body which arbitrarily seeks enforcement of some ‘resolutions’ as to some but not others ( ie., israel, u.n. resolutions 242, 338, etc., israeli and american war crimes, etc..) Raison d’tre … I don’t think so! Quite the contrary! ]
Regulators close banks in GA, FL, AR, MN... [ Regulators shutter 3 small banks in Ga., 1 each in Fla., Ark., Minn.; 157 banks closed in 2010 ]
Payrolls Drop in 28 States, Joblessness Rises in 21...
Nevada rate to 14.3%...
Rhode Island City Nears Bankruptcy... Ireland Debt Downgrade...
IMF chief worried about Europe domino effect...Senate clerks preparing to read 1,924-page spending bill on floor -- for 50 hours!...
Senator: 'There's No Way' To Read Entire Bill Before Vote...
KERRY: 'Why Would We Have To Read Something?'
McConnell offers 1-page resolution in place of 1,924-page spending bill... SHOWDOWN: Gingrich Urges Fillibuster...
Biden To GOP Opposition: 'Get Out Of The Way'...
Reid: Earmarks are 'what we're supposed to do'...
Ban on Gitmo transfers vanishes...
Omnibus bill loaded with goodies for abortion industry...
PRIORITIES: House approves bill to make hybrids louder... 23% Say USA Heading in Right Direction, Lowest Since Obama Took Office...
POLL: Just 29% think Obama will be re-elected...
Is America the sick man of the globe?
BUCHANAN: Is this our America anymore?
UK Red Cross Bans Christmas to Avoid Offending Muslims...
SALVATION ARMY bell ringer caught stealing from kettle...
Deputies suspended after getting into brawl at party...
2 women charged with robbing 74-year-old...
Hundreds of gifts for kids stolen from 'Toys for Tots'...
Thousands of dollars in donated toys ruined after skunk attack... Grocery prices grow by 1.5 times inflation rate...

Socialist president plays host to capitalism...
REPORT: Obama told lawmakers not passing tax deal could end presidency...
A $48 billion earmark...
PAPER: Year of bullying, bluff and bailouts leaves euro fighting for its life...
Reeling from riots, Italy faces uncertainty...
Greek anti-austerity strike turns violent...
VIDEO...
MORE UNREST: 2011...
$575 million PER PAGE...
6,488 earmarks...
McConnell fumes: 'No one has seen it'...
Reid threatens to keep Congress into next year... Intelligence Reports Offer Dim Views of Afghan War... HOLBROOKE LAST WORDS: STOP THIS WAR!

UPDATE: RUSSIA TO USE CHINA CURRENCY IN TRADES...

UK GRANTS ASSANGE BAIL; SWEDEN APPEALS...
Release delayed...
Lawyer: Secret Grand Jury Meeting Outside Washington on Leak... CHRISTMAS CRIMES: Drive-By Purse Snatcher Terrorizing Women In NJ... 2 women charged with robbing 74-year-old...
Hundreds of gifts for kids stolen from 'Toys for Tots'...
Thousands of dollars in donated toys ruined after skunk attack...
Copper thieves burn down city's Christmas tree...
Burglar steals family's gifts -- and its dog!
Grave robbers steal 400 urns from cemetery...
'Grinch' Steals Packages Off Doorsteps, Signs For Deliveries...
Home Invaders Tie Up 12-Year-Old Boy, Take Video Games...
90-Year-Old Man Put In Choke-Hold, Robbed Of $370...
'Tea Party' anger simmers over backroom deal; Ramps up efforts... 2 Bank Failures Bring Year's Tally To 151...
COPS: Madoff's son hangs himself with dog collar in SoHo apartment...
...gave mechanic $400 tip day before suicide
Madoff Trustee Launches $19.6 Billion Lawsuit; 60 accused of participating in 'illegal scheme'...
Pump prices close in on average $3 a gallon...
FLASHBACK: $1.81 when Obama took office... BLOW TO O: JUDGE RULES GOV'T CAN'T MANDATE CITIZENS BUY HEALTH CARE...
Cantor: Direct Appeal to Supremes...
POLL: Support For Obamacare Hits New Low...
Pelosi: 'Are You Serious?'
Obama: 'I'm itching for a fight'...U N C O N S T I T U T I O N A LBarbara Walters: 'This Guy (wobama) Has an Emotional Problem' [ Yes, it’s true, babawawa … wobama has substantial mental problems which along with inherent criminality are pervasive in america which also includes boner, and where were you in discussing such, babawawa regarding psychopaths bush, clinton, etc., or even former beau, senile greenspun ]...
DEFICIT HITS RECORD... Putin Slams West for Assange Arrest...
US cable: Cuba to be insolvent within 2-3 years...
Assange Lawyers Prepare for U.S. Spying Indictment...
Teen Arrested in Hack Attacks...
Donations to WIKILEAKS are Tax Deductible -- in Germany...
Anonymous cyberwarriors stun experts...Media outlets may be probed over WikiLeaks stories, joe ‘zelig zionist incompetent and corrupt‘ lieberman in Campaign To Trample The First Amendment claims Can the US government prosecute media outlets that reported on the WikiLeaks cables? According to joe ‘zelig zionist incompetent and corrupt‘ lieberman in his Campaign To Trample The First Amendment, the answer is maybe.
Home Values May Drop by $1.7 Trillion This Year... UNEMPLOYMENT WEEK: DOWN TO 421,000; REVISED UP LAST WEEK 438,000...
POLL: Most Americans Say They’re Worse Off Under Obama...F O [Related: Olbermann: Obama Is ‘God Damned Wrong’]REVENGE OF THE WIKIS!
Army of hackers targets the Swedish government...
Take down MASTERCARD site...
...VISA
PAYPAL...
AMAZON braces for hactivist attack...
Palin under cyber attack...
Assange's 'poison pill' file impossible to stop...
MOSCOW: Give Assange Nobel Peace Prize... SENATE REJECTS REPEAL OF DON'T ASK DON'T TELL...
House Dems push through massive budget bill...
Final House Race Decided; GOP Net Gain: 63 Seats...
Ron Paul, Author of 'End the Fed,' to Lead Fed Oversight Panel... Student protesters in London turn violent over tuition hikes...
Thousands try to break through police barricades at Houses of Parliament...
...attack car containing Prince Charles, Camilla...
Rolls Royce hit with paint; rear window smashed...
US Treasuries hit by biggest sell-off since LEHMAN...
Prices Plunge for 2nd Day on Deficit Fears...
Rattles investors... Oil tipped to bubble over $100 barrel... Food Stamp Rolls Continue to Rise... SHOCK POLL: Americans Believe China Has Surpassed USA in Economic Strength...
'U.S. fiscal health worse than Europe's'... Sorkin: Palin TV show is 'snuff movie'... [ Yeah … ‘she’s really all that’ and worse … I have great difficulty getting past the fact that she’s so incredibly dumb … not just ‘nonintellectual’ … butt really dumb! ] ‘…Sorkin, writer of the recent Facebook movie The Social Network, also accused the Fox News contributor of making a "snuff film" after the latest episode of Sarah's Palin's Alaska featured the politician going hunting with her father and shooting a caribou. He described Palin as "deranged", a "witless bully" and a "phony pioneer girl". He also said The Learning Channel, the US cable network, "should be ashamed of itself" for broadcasting her "truly awful reality show"…’
Senate convicts Clinton-appointed judge... [ Come on! One way or another they’re almost all getting bribed; including the initial lifetime appointment as alito, trump-barry, etc.. Abolish the corrupt, costly, economically wasteful lifetime extravagantly appointed federal courts (see RICO case http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/ricosummarytoFBIunderpenaltyofperjury.pdf http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/PeiavCoanetals.htm ) End those lifetime licenses to steel. ] In earlier hearings, two attorneys who once worked with Porteous had testified that they gave him thousands of dollars in cash, including about $2,000 stuffed in an envelope in 1999, just before Porteous decided a major civil case in their client's favor.
Assange could face espionage trial in USA...
Palin under cyber attack...
1st Amendment issues...
Assange's 'poison pill' file impossible to stop...
WIKILEAKS: Stop Us? You'll Have to Shut Down Web...
Berkeley 'resolution' honoring leaker... Scientologists outraged over spoof Christmas play... [ Hubbard was such a total fraud! Scientologists are delusional! ]St. Petersburg, Florida – ‘A controversial holiday musical production is set to open at American Stage Theatre in St. Petersburg. Photos: Pictures of A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant "A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant" is a musical play designed for the holiday season, but this play will not focus on Jesus Christ, but instead the story is about L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the church Of Scientology…’
NO BAIL...
Assange 'sabotaged condom' during one night stand... Refused to wear one during another... Stockholm police: Both women are victims... INTERPOL WARRANT FOR NOT WEARING PROTECTION?ASSANGE UNDER ARREST:
'HE DIDN'T WEAR A CONDOM'Under arrest, will Assange dump the Doomsday Files?
Assange: Don't shoot messenger for revealing uncomfortable truths...
FLASHBACK: HILLARY COMPLAINS GOVERNMENTS BLOCK FREE FLOW OF INFO ON INTERNET...
WIKILEAKS: LIVE UPDATES... FCC push to regulate news draws fire...
Lieberman: NYT may have committed crime by printing WIKILEAKS docs...
US to Host World Press Freedom Day in 2011 … [ What a total travesty! The u.s. as host … What a cruel joke! ] ... OBAMA RACES TO CUT TAXES BEFORE REPUBLICANS: 6.2% Social Security tax would drop to 4.2% for workers for one year... MORETHE NEW OBAMA! SURPRISE TAX CUT MOVE [ As with defacto bankrupt america generally, more defacto bankrupt social security system, etc., are distinctions without significant differences. ]
OIL HITS $89...
Pump prices hit 2-year high... Schwarzenegger Declares Fiscal Emergency, Proposes $9.9 Billion In Cuts...
Top Democrats defect, join unified GOP... WIKILEAKS' Assange Will Release Encrypted Files If Arrested...
Cables Reveal How US Manipulated Climate Accord...
Cable: China Leaders Ordered Hacking on GOOGLE...
Meddling by Neighbors Adds to Iraq's Woes...
Government Workers Ordered Not to Read Cables...
Gingrich: Leaks Show Admin 'Shallow,' 'Amateurish'...
McConnell: Assange a 'High-Tech Terrorist'...
List of facilities 'vital to US security' leaked...
Mirror Sites Appear by the Hundreds...
Assange Speaks...
Hillary Jokes...
US forced to shake up embassies around world...THE DOOMSDAY FILESPAPER: Wave goodbye to Internet freedom... [ I’m absolutely astounded that the world is not profoundly grateful to Assange et als for providing insight into the machinations and insanity of pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america, et als who wreaked havoc on the world as they pillage, plunder, and destroy (lives, nations, etc.). ] +39,000 JOBS IN NOVEMBER...
BOEHNER: Dem Leaders Should Stop Wasting Time on Tax Hike Votes...
HALPERIN: Dems 'In Midst of Nervous Breakdown'... Obama Makes Surprise Trip to Afghanistan...
Flies 7,000 miles -- talks to Karzai for 15 minutes on phone!
Forgets the Coast Guard...
Leaves Biden behind to handle 'disappointing' jobs report... Reid, funded by casinos, pushes online gambling...
ABCNEWS accused of breaking embargo...
2010 death toll of US troops nears that of 2001-2008 combined... OBAMA SPEECHWRITER JOKES ABOUT TSA GROPING: Allows 'defrocked priests to give back to society'...
US Deficit-Cutting Plan Falls Short of Needed Votes...UNEMPLOYMENT UP TO 9.8%HILLARY: Secretary of State will be 'my last public position'... ... PITCHE$ $IGNED DVD ON HOME $HOPPING NETWORK..
US TO BAILOUT EU [ Riiiiight! Sounds like a plan! After all, in defacto bankrupt america money does grow on trees … derivatively (pun intended) that is … you know … that ever more worthless fiat paper currency … and ultimately, existentially, philosophically, doesn’t paper come from trees … sure it does …so, no problemo since money grows on trees. ]
BOMBSHELL: European banks took big slice of Fed aid...
Hundreds of billions of dollars...
Fed reveals global extent of its backing... ]Funds went to stalwarts of American industry including GE and Caterpillar and household-name companies such as Verizon, new data show.
GEORGIA: HUNDREDS LINE UP IN COLD FOR HEAT HELP...
Assistance Funds Quickly Depleted...
'Almost like being in soup line during great depression'...
VIDEO...
DELAYING TAX VOTE COULD 'CRASH STOCK MARKET' STARTING 12/15 [ Come on! There’s no way to justify the tax cut to the top 1% including the frauds on wall street … their threats don’t hunt no more … the nation’s defacto bankrupt … see Davis, supra! ]
Chase Bank orders branch to remove Christmas tree... Cyber attack forces WIKILEAKS to change web address...
Respected media outlets collaborate with organization... [ Said outlets and other disseminators and of course Wikileaks deserve accolades for the advancement of first amendment liberties in the name of an informed global body politick for all.]
UPDATE: Latest developments...
Foreign contractors hired Afghan 'dancing boys'...
Embassy cables portray Karzai as corrupt, erratic...
CIA drew up UN spying wishlist...
Assange speaks... UPDATE: Latest WIKILEAKS developments...
Foreign contractors hired Afghan 'dancing boys'...
Embassy cables portray Karzai as corrupt, erratic...
CIA drew up UN spying wishlist... SANTA CLAUSE: FED AID WENT TO COMPANIES, BANKS, OFFSHORE...
SECRETLY BAILED OUT GE -- GE NEWS OUTLETS FAILED TO REVEAL IN FED COVERAGE... SANTA CLAUSE: FORD, BMW, TOYOTA Took Secret Government Money......
Fed Created Conflicts in Improvising Financial System Rescue...
Tax Breaks for Bailout Recipients Spark Debate...
MORE SECRETS: Fed Withholds Data for $885 Billion in Loans... RUSSIA TO HOST '18 WORLD CUP FINALS...
Qatar selected '22 host over USA, others... 'AMERICAN PSYCHO' musical in works... [ I recommend the derivative films, American Psycho and American Psycho 2, for insight! ] National Board of Review: SOCIAL NETWORK named best film... [ National board of what? ‘Inception’ is by far and away the ‘Best Film’ across the board, in all categories, and on the list! ] LIST... BANK OF AMERICA Becoming 'Bank of Asia' as Revenue Increases 30% ... RESET: PUTIN CRITICIZES USA OVER WIKILEAKS … [ Putin deserves the greatest deference in matters of global concern in light of his greater rationality; america’s self-serving accusations are merely envy and projection / displacement (in psychoanalytic terms) of america’s pervasively corrupt, criminal, broken system which is a far cry in reality from defacto bankrupt america’s propaganda.]...
REWARD: [ The payoff. Bribe complete! Next bribe scenario … ] CITI to Hire Obama's Ex-Budget Chief Orszag...
FLASHBACK: Rubin and friends ride NY-DC shuttle... ZUCKERMAN: Watching America's Decline and Fall [the moral authority of the West has dramatically declined in the face of the financial crisis. It has revealed deep fault lines within Western economies that have spread to the global economy. The majority of Western governments are running fiscal deficits of 10 percent or more relative to GDP, but it is increasingly clear that there will be no quick fixes, that big government and fiscal deficits will not bring us back to the status quo ante. Indeed, the tidal wave of red ink has meant that the leverage-led or debt-led growth model is dead. Developed countries will be forced to deal with their debt on every level, from the personal to the corporate to the sovereign. Being able to borrow may have made people feel richer, but having to repay the debt is certainly making them feel poorer, particularly since the unfunded liabilities that many governments face from aging populations will have to be paid for by a shrinking band of workers. (Ecoutez, mes amis!) Demography is destiny. As a result, there is a burgeoning consensus that we are witnessing an inevitable rise of the East and a decline of the West…( Harry Dent, Jr. Economy will be in a Depression by 2011 The worst of this next depression is likely to hit between mid-2010 and mid-2013, especially around early 2011, but if the banking system continues to implode a deep downturn or depression could begin sometime in 2009 instead of 2010. Dow will Fall to 3,800 – 4,500 by 2012 Nasdaq will Fall Below 1,100, its 2002 low, by late 2010 or mid-2012 at the latest. Inflation will Increase until mid- 2010 and then turn to Deflation Interest Rates will Increase U.S. Dollar will Decline Housing will Decline by 40 – 60% from Today’s Levels Greatest Economic and Banking Crisis since the 1930s will Occur Between 2010 and 2012). ) ]...
Interpol issues wanted notice for Julian Assange [ They just can’t take the truth! ] ...
US cuts access to files [ Think about it. Really think about it. Their policies are in the tank, along with the nation and the rest of this world as a consequence. Don’t those so detrimentally affected (everyone) have a right to know? I think in light of the global frauds, contrived perpetual wars though defacto bankruptcy of this and other nations, pervasive corruption and crime, failed policies domestically and geo-politically while serving the very parochial interests of the self-interested few, the answer is an unequivocal, YES! I believe that world history will write Mr. Assange as a hero in the truest sense. He should be given a medal; and, certainly, since mr. b*** s*** wobama undeservingly got a ‘nobel peace prize’ (what he does, not what he says, ie., Afghanistan, etc.), who more than Julian Assange is deserving of that and more? Cover-up / propaganda … thy name is fallen america.]...WIKILECTURE: 'HILLARY SHOULD RESIGN' ‘…Hillary Clinton, Julian Assange said, "should resign." Speaking over Skype from an undisclosed location on Tuesday, the WikiLeaks founder was replying to a question by TIME managing editor Richard Stengel over the diplomatic-cable dump that Assange's organization loosed on the world this past weekend. Stengel had said the U.S. Secretary of State was looking like "the fall guy" in the ensuing controversy, and had asked whether her firing or resignation was an outcome that Assange wanted. "I don't think it would make much of a difference either way," Assange said. "But she should resign if it can be shown that she was responsible for ordering U.S. diplomatic figures to engage in espionage in the United Nations, in violation of the international covenants to which the U.S. has signed up. Yes, she should resign over that."…’
CITY ON EDGE: Cash-Strapped Newark, new jersey Forced To Lay Off 14% Of Police Force... [ From decades old (1978-1985) direct personal experience with newark, n.j., the police are the absolute last cuts that can be afforded to be made. Indeed, while walking through Military Park (a sliver of a “park” - more a pedestrian thoroughfare/cement walks) in newark, new jersey on the way to the bank during lunch hour, I heard the clearly audible screams/cries of what turned out to be an old lady on the ground with blood streaming from her mouth. I ran toward the sound of the cries, the source of which I could not see because there were so many people in and about this thoroughfare so as to block any vision of the source of the cries. When I came to the woman, on the ground, blood streaming from her mouth, I asked what happened, to which she responded she had been hit in the mouth and knocked to the ground, her purse stolen/put inside her shopping bag, and she pointed out the criminal casually now walking across the main street. Nobody stopped to help her, many having passed her by. I slammed the thug to the ground so hard that, in light of all the blood and confusion (limbic system / adrenalin flow) I thought I had been stabbed (the blood was from his elbows hitting the pavement so hard - no one helped / a crowd gathered / an undercover cop happened along). When I testified at the Grand Jury Proceeding I made sure his threat on my life was set forth in prima facie fashion so as to maximize the DA’s position with both felonies ( he went to prison – pled out ). The other case I wrote about here ( This was included on my website in the Psychology forum discussion of ‘bystander effect’ / diffusion of responsibility. ) - Having had occasion to have run down a mugger in newark, n.j. who apparently had followed a girl from the bank on her way to the bursar to pay tuition, though in pretty good shape, I was astounded by how totally exhausting such a pursuit was, how much like rubber my arms were when I traded punches with the perpetrator, and truth be told, if I had a flashlight on my belt, I have little doubt that I would have probably used it to subdue the perp. The girl was not that seriously injured, did get her pocketbook and tuition back, and the criminal went to jail. The other thing about such a pursuit that amazed me was that no one else assisted the girl or me despite being in a position to do so). (Other newark / new jersey and new york, n.y. metro, viz., ie., connecticut, and of course, d.c., d.c. metro, viz., ie., virginia experience … corrupt federal judges as maryanne trump barry, sam alito, shiff, matz (california), hall, underhill, dorsey, etc.. Defacto bankrupt america’s so-called system is pervasively corrupt and broken (AP) Abolish the corrupt, costly, economically wasteful lifetime extravagantly appointed federal courts - see RICO case http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/ricosummarytoFBIunderpenaltyofperjury.pdf http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/PeiavCoanetals.htm ) ] Nation's '2nd Most Dangerous City' (camden, new jersey) To Lay Off Nearly Half Of Police Force... Chicagoland: Vandals torch Christmas charity van...

N.J. orders court appearances (Washington Post) [ Well, the one thing you know for certain, the money’s flying in this notoriously corrupt, multi-ethnic mob infested state, jersey and law will have very little to do with the decision … Corrupt sinkhole states of connecticut, new york, virginia, and california are from direct experience, not that much different and not that much better … (see RICO case http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/ricosummarytoFBIunderpenaltyofperjury.pdf http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/PeiavCoanetals.htm ) ] Judicial order requires six banks -- Ally Financial, Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase among them -- to explain why court shouldn't suspend foreclosures.

Afghanistan delivers a belated, muted criticism of Obama's war strategy review (Washington Post) [ war strategy review … Don’t make me laugh! What strategy? To what end? National bankruptcy? Accomplished! Costly blowback (now and future)? Accomplished! Heroin trade up? Accomplished! Increase global anti-american sentiment? Accomplished! Incresed corporate welfare to special war profiteering interests? Accomplished! Killing innocent men, women, and children? Accomplished! … ‘should have focused more on other issues, such as Afghan civilian casualties’… duh! Remember, these wobamanoids/bushies are desperate criminals in a failed administratin / nation ]

FCC set to enact strong rules affecting Internet access (Washington Post) [ So predictable … that ‘beacon of liberty’ … you know, that they know, the truth works against them … Drudgereport: `The FCC's Threat to Internet Freedom...`
`Dems play politics with 'net neutrality' vote...`
`'Sweeping new rules'...`
`REGULATE...`

WikiLeaks: Julian Assange says police feared he would be assassinated outside High Court The founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange has claimed he is being bombarded with death threats from american soldiers (who have got to be considered propagandized fools since he actually was helping them inasmuch as they are viewed by the so-called powers that be as nothing more than nation-distracting cannon fodder, despite any political rhetoric to the contrary). ]Cecilia Kang Enactment of the controversial rules would mark the government's strongest move yet to ensure Web data reach consumers' homes unimpeded.

Low-wage families on the rise (Washington Post) [ Yeah! Poverty and the size of the (still unprosecuted from last fraud) fraudulent wall street sinkhole bonuses … rising. ] Recession sharply increased the percentage of working people who earn wages so paltry they struggle to survive, according to a new report.

Applebaum: The 'decline of the West' (Washington Post) [ It really is true … and, no leftist sympathizer with his book of the same name, none other than Buchanan says as much. The reason of course is based on reality. From Orwellian Britain, to failed nation-state the pervasively corrupt and defacto bankrupt wobama-bushland america, to perpetual war ‘me-toos’ (ie., nato allies, war crimes nations israel, u.s., etc.), their frauds (wall street, etc.) protected, laws meaningless(see RICO case http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/ricosummarytoFBIunderpenaltyofperjury.pdf http://www.albertpeia.com/112208opocoan/PeiavCoanetals.htm ) , their ruthless suppression subtle, hidden, but odious as never before in their respective histories, the west at best has become that ‘distinction without significant difference’ and heading to worse than can be imagined. Of course they’ll lay blame to something other than the huge frauds / wealth transfers that have plundered the nation. Indeed, one could even cogently argue that said plundering gave rise to the flawed, failed communism lie in the first instance. Yet, Russia, a great nation with a rich history is not a communist nation, did not violently suppress the people as they shirked that communist yoke / albatross, is not as defacto bankrupt, meaningfully lawless, pervasively corrupt america engaging in perpetual wars of destruction to persons and property, and with a great leader of historical dimension in Putin is a far more rational choice than the bankrupt west on all levels. As for communist china, it has truly been a self-defeating, self-destructive creation of the west out of greed which is in no short supply in the west. PREVIOUS:

Wikileaks founder freed on bail (Washington Post) [ ‘… Moore (correctly) asserts that Assange is under attack solely because he had the courage to expose American war crimes. Moore writes:

We were taken to war in Iraq on a lie. Hundreds of thousands are now dead. Just imagine if the men who planned this war crime back in 2002 had had a WikiLeaks to deal with. They might not have been able to pull it off. The only reason they thought they could get away with it was because they had a guaranteed cloak of secrecy....

So why is WikiLeaks, after performing such an important public service, under such vicious attack? Because they have outed and embarrassed those who have covered up the truth…’

Though Assange’s arrest was on far more tenuous grounds owing to a CIA-linked girl, Roman Polanski was similarly targeted:

BBC News - Roman Polanski triumphs at European Film Awards Dec 5, 2010 ... Roman Polanski's thriller The Ghost Writer wins six prizes at the European ... Polanski was working on the film at the time of his arrest in ...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11921048 {I strongly recommend this, of course, masterfully done film which deals with exactly that topic and the sordid, unscrupulous machinations of the cia / u.s. (no wonder the u.s. opted out of coverage by world treaty / The Hague thereby) to avoid detection of, and to further such activities as the war crimes referenced.}

Don’t forget: america has their own untouchables in the illegal sense, ie., wall street, etc., and In interview, Bush defends Iraq war and waterboarding (Washington Post) [ Defending the indefensible … what choice does he have … then there’s the lies … ] Bush breaks silence, writes next chapter (Washington Post) [ As a failed president and war criminal himself, moron dumbya bush is among the few in the world that makes failed president wobama look plausibly good in comparison … wobama merely continued the failed policies of dumbya (perpetual war, no pros the frauds on wallstreet, etc.) that got pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america to this point of decline and failure. ] Anne E. Kornblut Your take: His most memorable moment? [ Like regrets in that old song (his way) he’s had a few – http://albertpeia.com/evilonthetarmac.htm here’s a few: bushisms from bush the brain-damaged moron http://albertpeia.com/bushisms.htm :

Clinton Speaks: He Did It Because He Could - There Are Serial Killers On Death Row Who Have Killed Fewer People Than Unconflicted, Pathological Liar/Perjurer, Rapist, and Murderer, Psychopath criminal american clinton

· clinton Flashed ("Dropped his Drawers") Paula Jones and Implored Her To "Kiss It" (his p***s, which owing to distinctive "marking/disfigurement" she was able to describe)

· clinton "Cops a Cheap Feel/Grope" From Kathleen Willey In Attempting Prey Upon Her Perceived Vulnerability

· clintonites Threaten Dolly Kyle Browning In Attempting To Intimidate Her Into Giving False Testimony

· clinton Brutally Rapes Juanita Broaddrick

· clinton Was Asked To Leave Oxford Owing To Sexual Assault Of A Fellow Student

He Does It Because He Can

On March 11, 1999, Investor’s Business Daily reported that at least nine (9) women have now charged that Clinton "personally assaulted them or, through his ‘agents’ or ‘people,’ threatened to do them or their families physical harm." The list includes Dolly Kyle Browning, Gennifer Flowers, Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Corbin Jones, Kathleen Willey, Monica Lewinsky, Linda Tripp, Sally Perdue, and Elizabeth Ward Gracen. "And all of them say they’re afraid for their safety so long as he remains in power."

CLINTON BODY COUNT

By: Ether Zone Staff

Here is the latest body count that we have. All of these people have been connected with the Clintons in some form or another. We have not included any deaths that could not be verified or connected to the Clinton scandals. All deaths are listed chronologically by date. This list is current and accurate to the best of our knowledge as of January 13, 1999 August 1, 2000. (see complete list http://albertpeia.com/bodycount.htm ) …’ ]

Robinson: On track to nowhere in Afghanistan (Washington Post) [ I agree with Mr. Robinson and we should be thankful that he’s watching closely and, unlike so many others, he has courage enough to say so :

Obama's glaring ego (Washington Post) [ Come on! Now known for what he really is; viz., an insecure, dysfunctional, jive-talking b* s* artist, he’s just once again, but typically wrong, and is nothing to have an ego about. Robinson: White House is eerily silent on taxes (Washington Post) [ Eerily? I think not! Expectantly? I think so! That is, once you get beyond the wobama b* s* ! And, truth be told party distinctions are merely distinctions without significant differences (no prosecution of the wall street frauds, wars raging in Afghanistan / Middle East, etc.. But alas, as to the ‘wobama whitehouse’ this was predictable early on as by David Icke : Barack Obama: The Naked Emperor Shocking but true revelations from David Icke (a must read) | ‘Vast numbers of people across the world, including many who should know better, have been duped by the mind-game called Operation Obama... (excerpts) Obama has been the chosen one for a long time, a fact known only to a few in the deep inner circle, and his relationship with Brzezinski almost certainly goes back to the start of the 1980s when he attended the Ivy League, and big-time Illuminati, Columbia University where Brzezinski was head of the Institute for Communist Affairs. Obama simply will not talk in any detail about this period. He has been covertly funded and supported ever since by the Trilateral Commission and its network of foundations connecting into the Ford Foundation, for whom Obama's mother worked. And a question: Does anyone really believe that someone, a 'man of the people', would simply appear from apparently nowhere to run the slickest and best-funded presidential campaign in American history? He was chosen long ago by those who wish to enslave the very people that Obama says he wants to 'set free'. The sources of Obama funding read like a Wall Street Who's Who - Goldman Sachs, UBS, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and so on. No wonder he went back on his pledge to accept the limitations of public funding for his campaign and instead took the no-limit option of 'private funding. Then there is the Jewish financier, George Soros, the multi-billionaire associate of Brzezinski and closely involved with the funding and marketing of Obama. Soros is a former board member of the Illuminati's Council on Foreign Relations and funds the European Council on Foreign Relations. In short, he is a major insider' You can certainly see the Soros/Brzezinski techniques in the Obama 'revolution' in the United States. It was the complex and secretive network of Soros foundations and organisations, connected to the intelligence agencies of the US and Israel, that trained and funded students in the Ukraine, Georgia and elsewhere in the art of mass protest and overthrowing governments. These manufactured protests were sold to the world as peoples' revolutions, but it just so happened that when they were over and the old regime was removed the new leaders were those waiting in the wings all along - the puppets of Soros, Brzezinski and their associated networks. Obama is just more of the same, a big smile with strings attached, and controlled completely by the Illuminati networks that chose him, trained him, sold him and provided his record funding. It was they who kept his many skeletons under wraps, like the gay sex and crack cocaine allegations of Larry Sinclair (from affidavit: 1. Who is Ron Allen that claims to be with your Presidential camp, who is alleged to claim that someone claiming to represent me called asking for $100,000, to keep me from coming forward about our (Obama and I) November 1999 encounter of sex and cocaine use?), and they will continue to do so as long as he jumps to their bidding. Obama is just another Banksters' moll prostituting himself for fame and power, and that's why he supported the grotesque bail-out of the banking system and why he will always put their interests before the people. His financial advisors are straight from the Wall Street 'A' list, including Paul Adolph Volker (Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, Bilderberg Group), the head of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987 and Illuminati to his fingertips. Obama has made him head of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which is dominated by insiders, including its staff director and chief economist, Austan Goolsbee, a close Obama associate from the University of Chicago. Goolsbee is an initiate of the infamous Illuminati Skull and Bones Society at Yale University, which also includes Boy and Father Bush. It was Goolsbee who told the Canadian government not to worry about Obama's attacks on the economic effects of free trade agreements because his words were just to win votes in the election campaign. Another Wall Street insider, the Zionist Timothy Geithner (Bilderberg Group, Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations), was appointed by Obama to be his Treasury Secretary. Geithner was the President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, the most powerful in the private Federal Reserve cartel that masquerades as America's central bank, and he is a former employee of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the appalling Kissinger Associates. Obama's Treasury team locks into the inner circle around the Zionist Robert Rubin, the Director and Senior Counselor of Citigroup, co-chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, and economic advisor to Obama. Rubin, a member of the Illuminati Bilderberg Group, was the man behind Citigroup's strategy of expanding its risk in debt markets which forced it to be rescued by taxpayers' money. The very people who caused the financial crisis are being appointed by Obama to decide how to respond to it (more taxpayers' money for them and their friends) ‘
The following youtube video is well worth the look and explains how and why the frauds on wall street have gotten away with their devastating fraud thus far. The frauds on wall street et als should be criminally prosecuted, jailed, fined, and disgorgement imposed. ( `UPDATE: MORE CLAIMS OF RACE BIAS AT JUSTICE...` `CIVIL RIGHTS PANEL TO PURSUE FED PROBE IN BLACK PANTHER CASE... ‘`In emotional and personal testimony, an ex-Justice official who quit over the handling of a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party accused his former employer of instructing attorneys in the civil rights division to ignore cases that involve black defendants and white victims ...’ `US v. AZ...` Cases against Wall Street lag despite Holder’s vows to target financial fraud Washington Post | Obama has promised to hold Wall Street accountable for the meltdown. ):

‘THE OBAMA DECEPTION’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw&feature=PlayList&p=2EFAB57B44063742&playnext_from=PL&index=0&playnext=1 – well worth a look. [ The Obama Deception Number 1 on U.S. Google Trends ]

While boner and barton are indeed jokes / vegetables that bespeak the single-digit approval rate for congress, obama’s failure to deliver on promises with as well, endless war spending despite defacto bankruptcy of the nation and a watered down nothing financial regulation bill for talking points but little substance, make him as big a joker. This well researched / produced video tells the real story : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw&feature=PlayList&p=2EFAB57B44063742&playnext_from=PL&index=0&playnext=1 ‘THE OBAMA DECEPTION’ – well worth the view. [ The Obama Deception Number 1 on U.S. Google Trends ]

‘The Obama Deception’ Censored A viral You Tube upload of one of Alex Jones’ most popular feature films ‘The Obama Deception’ has been censored following a spur of the moment campaign to elevate the movie’s title to the top of the major internet search engines. In light of this development, I provide an archived site version which appears to be complete (but will be compared with earlier version and replaced with same if incomplete) http://albertpeia.com/obamadeceptionhighqualityversion.flv

Then there is the well researched, produced, and informative ‘ESOTERIC AGENDA’ which explains how we’ve gotten to this forlorn point: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7052400717834950257# [ youtube is often down – website archived version is available as follows: http://www.albertpeia.com/esotericagenda.flv http://www.albertpeia.com/esotericagendalinktoarchive.htm ]

-------------------

In interview, Bush defends Iraq war and waterboarding (Washington Post) [ Defending the indefensible … what choice does he have … then there’s the lies … ] Bush breaks silence, writes next chapter (Washington Post) [ As a failed president and war criminal himself, moron dumbya bush is among the few in the world that makes failed president wobama look plausibly good in comparison … wobama merely continued the failed policies of dumbya (perpetual war, no pros the frauds on wallstreet, etc.) that got pervasively corrupt, defacto bankrupt america to this point of decline and failure. ] Anne E. Kornblut Your take: His most memorable moment? [ Like regrets in that old song (his way) he’s had a few – http://albertpeia.com/evilonthetarmac.htm here’s a few: bushisms from bush the brain-damaged moron http://albertpeia.com/bushisms.htm :

Clinton Speaks: He Did It Because He Could - There Are Serial Killers On Death Row Who Have Killed Fewer People Than Unconflicted, Pathological Liar/Perjurer, Rapist, and Murderer, Psychopath criminal american clinton

· clinton Flashed ("Dropped his Drawers") Paula Jones and Implored Her To "Kiss It" (his p***s, which owing to distinctive "marking/disfigurement" she was able to describe)

· clinton "Cops a Cheap Feel/Grope" From Kathleen Willey In Attempting Prey Upon Her Perceived Vulnerability

· clintonites Threaten Dolly Kyle Browning In Attempting To Intimidate Her Into Giving False Testimony

· clinton Brutally Rapes Juanita Broaddrick

· clinton Was Asked To Leave Oxford Owing To Sexual Assault Of A Fellow Student

He Does It Because He Can

On March 11, 1999, Investor’s Business Daily reported that at least nine (9) women have now charged that Clinton "personally assaulted them or, through his ‘agents’ or ‘people,’ threatened to do them or their families physical harm." The list includes Dolly Kyle Browning, Gennifer Flowers, Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Corbin Jones, Kathleen Willey, Monica Lewinsky, Linda Tripp, Sally Perdue, and Elizabeth Ward Gracen. "And all of them say they’re afraid for their safety so long as he remains in power."

CLINTON BODY COUNT

By: Ether Zone Staff

Here is the latest body count that we have. All of these people have been connected with the Clintons in some form or another. We have not included any deaths that could not be verified or connected to the Clinton scandals. All deaths are listed chronologically by date. This list is current and accurate to the best of our knowledge as of ~~January 13, 1999~~ August 1, 2000. (see complete list http://albertpeia.com/bodycount.htm )

Susan Coleman: Rumors were circulating in Arkansas of an affair with Bill Clinton. She was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head at 7 1/2 months pregnant. Death was an apparent suicide.

Kevin Ives & Don Henry: Initial cause of death was reported to be the result of falling asleep on a railroad track in Arkansas on August 23, 1987. This ruling was reported by the State medical examiner Fahmy Malak. Later it was determined that Kevin died from a crushed skull prior to being placed on the tracks. Don had been stabbed in the back. Rumors indicate that they might have stumbled upon a Mena drug operation.

Paul Olson: A Federal witness in investigations to drug money corruption in Chicago politics, Paul had just finished 2 days of FBI interviews when his plane ride home crashed, killing Paul and 130 others on Sept 8 1994. The Sept. 15, 1994 Tempe Tribune newspaper reported that the FBI suspected that a bomb had brought down the airplane.

Calvin Walraven: 24 year on Walraven was a key witness against Jocelyn Elder's son's drug case. Walraven was found dead in his apartment with a gunshot wound to the head. Tim Hover, a Little Rock police spokesman says no foul play is suspected.

Alan G. Whicher: Oversaw Clinton's Secret Service detail. In October 1994 Whicher was transferred to the Secret Service field office in the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. Whatever warning was given to the BATF agents in that building did not reach Alan Whicher, who died in the bomb blast of April 19th 1995.

Ron Brown:. The Commerce Secretary died on April 3, 1996, in an Air Force jet carrying Brown and 34 others, including 14 business executives on a trade mission to Croatia, crashed into a mountainside. The Air Force, in a 22-volume report issued in June of 1996, confirmed its initial judgment that the crash resulted from pilot errors and faulty navigation equipment At the time of Brown's death, Independent Counsel Daniel Pearson was seeking to determine whether Brown had engaged in several sham financial transactions with longtime business partner Nolanda Hill shortly before he became secretary of commerce.

Charles Meissner: died: UNK - Following Ron Brown's death, John Huang was placed on a Commerce Department contract that allowed him to retain his security clearance by Charles Meissner. Shortly thereafter, Meissner died in the crash of a small plane. He was an Assistant Secretary of Commerce for International Economic Policy.

Barbara Wise: Wise a 14-year Commerce Department employee found dead and partially naked in her office following a long weekend. She worked in the same section as John Huang. Officially, she is said to have died of natural causes.

Mary C. Mahoney: 25, murdered at the Georgetown Starbuck's coffee bar over the 4th of July '97 weekend. She was a former White House intern who worked with John Huang. Apparently she knew Monica Lewinsky and her sexual encounters with Bill Clinton. Although not verified, it has been said that Lewinsky told Linda Tripp that she did not want to end up like Mahoney.

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CIAAgentAffidavit1.jpg

For Those Who Wonder About the bush-clinton-bush Stranglehold on the Nation, Realize That Their Criminal Cooperation Began With Their Lucrative Relationship Vis-a-vis What Was Known as the Mena, Arkansas Drug (cocaine from Central/South America) Run As Set Forth In This CIA Agent's Affidavit/Declaration Under Penalty of Perjury.

The Vietnam war was a painful time for America. Many young Americans were drafted and died thousands of miles from their loved ones. Young men of priviledge had a clear advantage - few of them went to Vietnam, securing positions in the National Guards of their respective states. George W. Bush was one of these men, securing a place in the Texas Air National Guard in spite of a waiting list of several hundred. However, he claims that he did not receive special consideration, which is clearly a lie.

Most of the young men lucky enough to get into the Guard fulfilled their obligations. George W. Bush did not. He was absent without leave, AWOL, for over a year. Not surprisingly, this got little attention from the corporate media...

… After the hostages' release, the arms shipments to Iran continued. Profits were funneled to another pet cause of the right wing - the Nicuaraguan terrorists known as "freedom fighters" or "Contras". Another Contra source of income was trafficking in narcotics, running cocaine into the United States, with the full knowledge and cooperation of Administration officials. In the 80's there was a huge increase in the flow of cheap crack cocaine into the inner cities of America and countless lives were destroyed.

A series of investigations led to the convictions of Oliver North and Vice Admiral John C. Poindexter, head of the National Security Council, on charges of obstructing Congress and unlawfully destroying documents, but both their convictions were later reversed. In 1992 President George H.W. Bush pardoned many of the top government officials who had been charged or convicted in the scheme. The main perpetrators of Iran/Contra and associated events remain free today, and many of them work in George W. Bush's Administration.

…

Of the three generations of Bush men mentioned on this site, the most evil and most dangerous by far is George Bush, Sr.

The Bush family came by their wealth on the backs of 11 million dead. Prescott Bush, along with partner E. Ronald Harriman, supplied financial aid and raw materials to Hitler's Third Reich.

In 1942, Bush/Harriman companies were seized under the Trading with the Enemy Act: the Union Banking Corporation, the Holland-American Trading Corporation, the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation and Silesian-American Corporation.

After the war, the CIA recruited many former Nazis to work for them, escaping prosecution for war crimes. Klaus Barbie, infamous for ordering the murder of French children, was among them. He was, however, eventually caught and returned to France to stand trial.

… Shortly before the 9/11 attacks, John Ashcroft stopped flying commercial and started flying on government-chartered planes. Why?

In fact, the George W. Bush received many warnings that he disregarded. Bush knew, and he did nothing. Why?

Oil, that's why. And a free rein to rape the Constitution.

…- David Blomstrom ]

] Gerson: He could have taken quiet credit for the bipartisan tax deal; he chose otherwise. ]

Low-wage families on the rise (Washington Post) [ Yeah! Poverty and the size of the (still unprosecuted from last fraud) fraudulent wall street sinkhole bonuses … rising. ] Recession sharply increased the percentage of working people who earn wages so paltry they struggle to survive, according to a new report.

This is an especially great time to Sell / Take Profits since there is much, much worse to come! ( They’re just suckin’ you in with debased dollar, inflated earnings and depressed P/E multiples thereby, insurmountable debt and stock bubble therefrom, diverting attention from their huge fraud accomplis with trillions of the worthless paper / toxic asset results of same now marked to anything as per legislated FASB rule change! ) ( These lower dollar, hyperinflationary currency manipulations / translations to froth paper stocks, and insurmountable debt will end quite badly as in last crash and worse! )

Sweet Stock Market Lullaby - Followed by Rude Awakening? Simon Maierhofer, On Monday December 20, 2010, 6:33 pm EST

Rock-a-bye baby, in the treetop ... are you asleep yet?The stock market is lulling investors to sleep. Since early September stocks have gone nowhere but up. Four weeks of steady gains have rekindled optimism and created a state of euphoria not seen in years ... since late 2007 to be exact.The irony of this article is that few investors will feel compelled to read anything that resembles a warning or contains a bearish message. The few that read this piece will probably scoff at it. That's how bear market rallies work and that's why they are effective.The soothing rhythm of the VIX has lulled investors into a state of complacency. If you had to describe investor's alertness in sleep lingo, a state of REM sleep would probably be the closest comparison.History tells us that the (bear) market only strikes when least expected.Based on a variety of sentiment measures, a stock market decline is viewed to be less likely to happen now than in 2000 or 2007.

No Hedging Required - 2011 Will Be Gangbusters

Investors and traders are content to hold on to massive long positions without hedge. One of the easiest ways to hedge your stock portfolio is via put options. The CBOE Equity Put/Call Ratio has tumbled to the second lowest reading in years. The only time investors hedged less was in April 2010.Back then, the put/call ratio dropped to 0.45. The lack of hedging is dangerous for prices because the market is without a safety net. The only option for spooked investors without hedge is to sell. Selling causes prices to drop.On April 16, 2010, the ETF Profit Strategy Newsletter warned of the consequences of a low put/call ratio: 'Selling results in more selling. This negative feedback loop usually results in rapidly falling prices. The pieces are in place for a major decline. We are simply waiting for the proverbial first domino to fall over and set off a chain reaction.'The first domino dropped just a few days later, setting off the May 6 'Flash Crash' and ultimately resulted in a swift 15% correction for the Dow (DJI: ^DJI), 17% correction for the S&P (SNP: ^GSPC), 19% for the Nasdaq (Nasdaq: ^IXIC), and 21% for the Russell 2000 (Chicago Options: ^RUT).

This Time is Different

The spirit of 'this time is different' is one of the most fascinating phenomenons known to Wall Street. Investors' sentiment precisely follows the ebb and flow of stock prices. When prices are up, the future is expected to be bright. When prices are down, the future is supposedly bleak (just think of the 2007 peak and 2009 bottom).This approach of linear extrapolations feeds the herding mentality, which contrarians use as contrarian indicators. This approach is not foolproof but, nevertheless, is one of the most accurate, if not the most accurate timing tool known to underground Wall Street aficionados.The chart below illustrates the four most prominent occurrences of extreme optimism, or the 'this time is different' effect. The green line connects the price of the S&P with the timeline and various sentiment gauges. [chart] Investors thought this time is different at the 2007 peak, in May 2008, in January 2010, and again in April 2010. The only thing different at all four times was the velocity of the descent, but each period of euphoria was greeted by despair.

Optimism and Bad News

If you have watched CNBC's 60 Minutes over the past two weeks, you are aware of some serious 'Black Swans.'Scott Pelley's introduction to Ben Bernanke's interview couldn't have been more sobering: 'That is the worst recovery we've ever seen. Ben Bernanke is concerned. Chairmen of the Fed rarely do interviews, but this week Bernanke feels he has to speak out because he believes his critics may not understand how much trouble the economy is in.'The financial media, however, ignored Ben Bernanke's outright scary assessment of the economy and focused on the silver lining: A bad economy may lead to QE3 and its cousins QE4 and QE5. What's better, an improving economy or more QE? Apparently QE is just as good as more jobs.Yesterday's 60 Minutes focused the next big thing; Municipal and state defaults. In the two years since the 'Great Recession,' states have collectively spent nearly half a trillion dollars more than they collected. There's a trillion dollar hole in their public pension fund and according to New Jersey's Governor, the day of reckoning is near.Meredith Whitney, one of the few analysts who foresaw the bubble building in banks (NYSEArca: KBE - News) and financials (NYSEArca: XLF - News) believes at least part of the three trillion municipal bond market will unravel within the next year.For much of 2010 municipal bonds were brewing their own little bubble. As it is common with bubbles, they are rarely foreseen by the public eye. In the case of muni bonds, yield hungry investors ignored the red flags.On August 26, the ETF Profit Strategy Newsletter warned that it is time to get out of muni bonds (NYSEArca: MUB - News), corporate bonds (NYSEArca: LQD - News) and Treasuries (NYSEArca: TLT - News). The chart below shows what has happened to muni bonds. [chart]

History Rhymes

Yes, history doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes. In 2007, Merrill Lynch's Global Economics Report foresaw a bright future: 'The Merrill Lynch global economics team believes that the economy will continue to grow in 2007 - with no sign of a significant cyclical slowdown.'According to J.P. Morgan, Barclays Capital and Goldman Sachs (Merrill Lynch failed to foresee its own demise in 2007 and is no more), the S&P will gain between 15 - 20% in 2011 and the 'economy will continue to grow in 2011.' No, this time is different, really!According to history, now is the time to at least be cautious and protect your investments. An ounce of protection is worth more than a pound of cure. Based on long-term valuation metrics the stock market is priced to deliver pain, not gain (see November 2011 ETF Profit Strategy Newsletter for a detailed analysis).Based on sentiment, the market is overheated and due for a correction at the very least. Timing a top is tricky, but based and support and resistance levels and seasonal patterns it is possible to narrow down when the market is ready to roll over.The ETF Profit Strategy Newsletter includes a semi-weekly update along with the most recent technical analysis and important support/resistance levels. A break below major support is likely to break the bulls' spirit and the market's streak ... while most are still sleeping.Oh, here are the missing lyrics for Rock-a-Bye Baby: 'When the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall. And down will come baby, cradle and all.' It doesn't sound like a good night's sleep.

John Hussman: 12 Reasons for Market Caution ‘Excerpt from the Hussman Funds' Weekly Market Comment (12/20/10):

1) Investors dangerously underestimate the risk of an abrupt and possibly severe equity market plunge Look back over history at points in time where stocks were trading at a rich multiple to normalized earnings (the Shiller multiple is a useful gauge here, as forward operating and price/peak earnings are both corrupted by profit margins that are about 50% above their historic norms). Combine that with overbought, overbullish conditions and rising interest rates. What you will get is a list of most historical pre-crash peaks. Depending on precisely how you define your classifier, you may pick up one or two benign outcomes, such as April 1999 (which I noted in the Hazardous Ovoboby piece in early 2007), but ask whether, on average, you would have knowingly chosen to take market risk at those points...

5) The U.S. economy is recovering, but that recovery is vulnerable to even modest shocks.

As I noted a couple of weeks ago, in the ideal case where the economy grows continuously without further credit strains, the "mean-reversion benchmark" scenario would be for GDP growth to approach an average rate of 3.8% annually for about 4 years, followed by about 2.3% annual growth thereafter. The corresponding mean-reversion benchmark for employment growth would be an average of about 200,000 new jobs per month on a sustained basis.There has certainly been some improvement in various indicators of economic activity. As strange as this may sound, given my criticism of the Fed, I would attribute much of this improvement to a sentiment effect in response Fed's policy of quantitative easing. While long-term Treasury yields are significantly higher than before QE2 was announced, and though I continue to believe that the main effect of QE2 has been to encourage ultimately short-sighted speculation, the Emperor's-clothes enthusiasm about QE2 has had at least the short-term effect of buoying short-term spending and hiring plans. Unfortunately, this sort of sentiment-dependent bounce in activity is not very robust to shocks.So while the surface activity of the U.S. economy has observably improved, it is in the context of an overvalued, overbought, overbullish, rising-yields market that is vulnerable to abrupt losses, a global financial system that remains subject to strains from sovereign default, a housing market where one-in-seven mortgages is delinquent or in foreclosure, and nearly one-in-four is already underwater with a huge overhang of unliquidated foreclosure inventory still in the pipeline, and a domestic financial system that lacks transparency and may still be slouching toward insolvency. The U.S. economy is progressing on the surface, but it remains a house built on a ledge of ice.’

Pre-Holiday Market Outlook: Mixed Bag of Signals, More Risk Than Reward Nyaradi ‘Rudolph was well into bringing the “Santa Rally” to town when this week he suddenly ran into the ominous sounding “Hindenburg Omen.” Beyond that, economic news was mostly positive while markets remain overbought, breadth is dwindling and upward momentum has stalled heading into the lightly traded Christmas week.

Looking at My Screens

As I mentioned, momentum is dwindling as the indexes stall near highs for the year. Bullish sentiment remains at high extremes typically associated with market tops and preceding significant declines.

Also, last week markets generated a confirmed “Hindenburg Omen” that is a fairly reliable forecaster for impending markets declines.

There are lots of good articles about the Hindenburg Omen but the salient facts from wikipedia.org are these:

There is a more than 75% probability of a decline of 5% or more after a confirmed Hindenburg Omen.
Larger selloffs have occured roughly 40% of the time after an omen while the probability of a major crash is approximately 25%.
A Hindenburg Omen has been generated before every major stock market decline since 1985.
Over the past 25 years, it has a greater than 90% accuracy rate.

While I’m not a follower of the Hindenburg Omen and don’t base trading decisions upon its occurences, I believe its statistical performance merits attention, particularly when combined with other technical indicators currently flashing caution.

Interestingly, the last Hindenburg Omen occured in August and received wide attention in both the blogosphere and mainstream media. In contrast, the current signal has gone largely unnoticed which is fascinating from a contrarian point of view. As we all know, when everyone in the market expects one thing to happen (prices to rise) usually the opposite occurs.

The View from 35,000 Feet

This was a largely bullish week for economic reports as Housing Starts, Retail Sales, Empire State Manufacturing, Industrial Production, Initial Unemployment Claims, Housing Starts and Leading Economic Indicators all came in on the positive side of the ledger.

In the minus column, rising interest rates continued troubling markets along with the ongoing problems in Europe, particularly Moody’s downgrade of Ireland by five steps.

But propping markets up, the Fed continued its bond buying program and Congress passed the tax cut extension/stimulus bill that President Obama promptly signed. That is a classic case of kicking the can down the road but that is a subject for another day.

What It All Means

Technically, the markets are showing substantial deterioration while economic reports continue to show improvement so we have a mixed bag of signals.

Investor bullishness is reaching nearly manic highs while seasonal factors favor higher prices. All along the way, the Fed continues its asset buying program to prop up asset prices while Europe continues to bubble in the background.

Rudolph has run into the Hindenburg and it will be interesting to see if Rudolph and Santa can complete their appointed rounds this Christmas season.

It seems a logical conclusion that at the current juncture there is more risk than reward in the market over the next few weeks and into the early days of 2011…’

Highlights of Tax Law Stimulus Lounsbury ’A summary of the new tax law provisions was posted at the GEI News Blog as the law was being signed by the president Friday. The outline was presented courtesy of the FPA (Financial Planning Association). The economic impact of the new tax law will be subject to careful scrutiny and analysis in the coming days. GEI offers here some first pass estimates on the stimulative effects of the law.

The excerpts in each section are from the previously posted FPA highlights.

Two-year extension of all current tax rates through 2012

Rates remain 10, 25, 28, 33, and 35 percent
2-year extension o f reduced 0 or 15 percent rate for capital gains & dividends
2-year continued repeal of Personal Exemption Phase-out (PEP) & itemized deduction limitation (Peas e)
Capital gains and dividend rates remain at 0 or 15 percent

This is basically no change from the tax law in place in 2010 so the stimulative value is largely positive only by not being negative, as it would have been to return to pre-2001 levels. CBO (Congressional Budget Office) Director Douglas Elmendorf has estimated (see Menzie Chinn) that the cumulative impact on GDP of these provisions in 2010-2015 would be between $20 billion and $80 billion. An estimate from Moody’s puts the GDP benefit at $60 billion.

As a first pass, using the Moody’s number, the impact on GDP in 2011 is $30 billion. This is not additional GDP, it is preserving GDP that would have been lost had the Bush tax cuts expired.

The cost of the tax cut extension totals $207.5 billion, or just under $104 billion for each 2011 and 2012.

Temporary modification of Estate, Gift and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax for 2010, 2011, 2012

Higher exemption, lower rate. The legislation sets the exemption at $5 million per person and $10 million per couple and a top tax rate of 35 percent for the estate, gift, and generation skipping transfer taxes for two years, through 2012. The exemption amount is indexed beginning in 2012. The proposal is effective January 1, 2010, but allows an election to choose no estate tax and modified carryover basis for estates arising on or after January 1, 2010 and before January 1, 2011. The proposal sets a $5 million generation-skipping transfer tax exemption and zero percent rate for the 2010 year.
Portability of unused exemption. Under current law, couples have to do complicated estate planning to claim their entire exemption. The proposal allows the executor of a deceased spouse’s estate to transfer any unused exemption to the surviving spouse without such planning. The proposal is effective for estates of decedents dying after December 31, 2010.
Reunification of estate and gift taxes. Prior to the 2001 tax cuts, the estate and gift taxes were unified, creating a single graduated rate schedule for both. That single lifetime exemption could be used for gifts and/or bequests. The proposal reunifies the estate and gift taxes. The proposal is effective for gifts made after December 31, 2010.
As noted above. the look-through of RIC stock held by non-resident decedents is extended through 2011.
Exemption amount indexed for inflation in 2012.

The cost of the new estate tax totals $68 billion, $34 billion for each 2011 and 2012 compared to the pre-2001 exemption of $1 million with a 55% top tax rate. If we compare to 2010 when there was no estate tax (but there was also no step up in basis for heirs), the law might actually yield more tax revenue than in 2010. In addition, the author has not found any multiplier or stimulus estimate. For estimating purposes the multiplier will be assumed to be the same as for income taxes (0.29). Thus the estimate is that a reduction in GDP of $10 billion will be realized in each 2011 and 2012.

Because the dollars are small and the direction and magnitude of the revenue change from 2010 to 2011 so uncertain, this first pass estimate will ignore this as a source or removal of stimulus.

AMT Patch for 2010 and 2011

Increases the exemption amounts for 2010 to $47,450 ($72,450 married filing jointly) and for 2011 to $48,450 ($74,450 married filing jointly). It also allows the nonrefundable personal credits against the AMT.

The cost of the new estate tax totals $137 billion, approximately $68 billion for each 2011 and 2012. Since this is an extension of the tax law from 2010, it provides no additive to GDP. Without this provision using the multiplier estimate from Moody’s indicates that GDP would have decreased by about $32 billion for each 2011 and 2012.

Extension of “tax extenders” for 2010 and 2011, including:

Tax-free distributions of up to $100,000 from individual retirement plans for charitable purposes
Above-the-line deduction for qualified tuition and related expenses
Expanded Coverdell Accounts and definition of education expenses
American Opportunity Tax Credit for tuition expenses of up to $2,500
Deduction of state and local general sales taxes
30-percent credit for energy-efficiency improvements to the home (IRC section 25C)
Exclusion of qualified small business capital gains (IRC§1202)

Costs and multiplier factors for these items have not been located.

Temporary Employee Payroll Tax Cut

Provides a payroll tax holiday during 2011 of two percentage points. Employees will pay only 4.2 percent on wages and self-employed individuals will pay only 10.4 percent on self-employment income up to $106,800.

This is a biggie. The total cost in 2011 is $112 and the Moody’s estimate for the multiplier is 1.29, giving a GDP adder for 2011 of $144 billion.

Expanded Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Credit and Marriage Penalty Relief

Marriage penalty relief ($27 billion)
Expanded dependent care credit
Child tax credit ($90 billion)
Earned income tax credit

Some of these factors are actually overlapping, in the author’s opinion. For example, the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit are probably the same thing, if not completely then in large part.

These tax provisions have different multiplier estimates. The marriage penalty relief should have the same multiplier as the tax rate extension in the first section. The GDP impact would therefore be about $4 billion for each 2011 and 2012.

The child tax credit would have multiplier about 1.02 according to Moody’s, so the impact on GDP would be about $48 billion per year (2011 and 2012).

Both of these would not be adders to 2010 GDP. The absence of these provisions would have provided a reduction in GDP for each 2011 and 2012 of $52 billion.

Education Incentives Extended Through 2012

Expanded Coverdell accounts and definition of education expenses
Expanded exclusion for employer-provided educational assistance of up to $5,250
Expanded student loan interest deduction
Exclusion from income of amounts received under certain scholarship programs
American Opportunity Tax Credit of up to $2,500 for tuition expenses

Costs for these total $18 billion; multipliers for these items have not been located. These are extension of 2010 programs and should not have any significant impact on changing GDP, although the passage may have avoided a GDP subtraction. If we assume the same multiplier as for income taxes, the GDP reduction avoided is about $3 billion each year (2011 and 2012).

Extension of Certain Expiring Provision for Individuals through 2011

Above-the-line deduction for qualified tuition and related expenses
Tax-free distributions of up to $100,000 from individual retirement plans for charitable purposes. Donors may treat donations made in January 2011 as if made in 2010.
30-percent credit for energy-efficiency improvements to the home (IRC section 25C)
Deduction of state and local general sales taxes
Parity for employer-provided mass transit benefits
Contributions of capital gain real property for conservation purposes
Deductibility of mortgage insurance premiums for qualified residence
Estate tax look-through of certain Regulated Investment Company (RIC) stock held by nonresidents for decedents dying before January 1, 2012
Above-the-line deduction for certain expenses of elementary and secondary school teachers

Costs are estimated to about $7 billion. No multiplier estimate has been found. The change from 2010 is probably not significant and the GDP loss if not extended would probably be small in the grand scheme of things ($1 billion per year?).

Temporary Extension of Investment Incentives

Extension of bonus depreciation for taxable years 2011 and 2012
Small Business Expensing: increase in the maximum amount and phase-out threshold under section 179. Sets the maximum amount and phase-out threshold for taxable years 2012 at $125,000 and $500,000 respectively, indexed for inflation. (Previously-passed legislation raised the 2010 and 2011 max amount and phase-out at $500,000 and $2,000,000 respectively.)

Costs are estimated to about $53 billion. The Moody’s estimated multiplier is only 0.27, so the GDP benefit is about $7 billion for each 2011 and 2012. This is not an adder to 2010 GDP but what would have been subtracted if the tax law had not been enacted.

Extension of Certain Expiring Provisions for Businesses through 2011

Enhanced charitable deduction for corporate contributions of computer equipment for educational purposes
Enhanced charitable deduction for contributions of food inventory
Enhanced charitable deduction for contributions of book inventories to public schools
Special rule for S corporations making charitable contributions of property
15-year straight-line cost recovery for qualified leasehold improvements
Employer wage credit for activated military reservists
Tax benefits for certain real estate developments
Extension of expensing of environmental remediation costs
Treatment of interest-related dividends and short term capital gain dividends of Regulated Investment Companies (RICs)
Work opportunity tax credit (WOTC)
100% Exclusion of qualified small business capital gains held for more than 5 years (IRC§1202)
Research credit
Qualified Zone Academy bonds

Costs and multiplier estimates have not been located.

Extension of Unemployment Insurance

The unemployment insurance proposal provides a one-year reauthorization of federal UI benefits.

The cost of this is $53 billion, all in 2011. The estimated multiplier is 1.64 so the GDP adder is $87 billion. As in many other cases this is not an adder to 2010 GDP, but what would have been subtracted had the benefits not been extended.

Other/Unidentified

There remains about $30 billion in lost 2010 tax revenue that has not been accounted for in the above analysis. See table next section. If we assign the income tax multiplier to that, each of the nest two years will see a GDP effect of about $4 billion. We will assume that is loss of GDP prevented, and not added GDP.

GEI First Pass Estimate of Effects of 2010 Tax Law

Click on table for larger image.

[chart]

At the end of 2011 it is the very preliminary estimate from GEI that tax revenues of approximately $554 billion will have been foregone and GDP growth will have benefited by $368 billion. Of course the tax revenues may in fact be reduced by less than $554 billion if the economy grows. And of course GDP may not grow as projected.

However, the above caveats aside, an oversimplification of the preliminary estimates states that we might be increasing the national debt by $554 billion and gaining only $368 billion in additional economic activity. Based on these preliminary estimates GDP should be about 1.6% higher than in 2010. That could mean GDP growth for 2011 around 4%.

If there had no been tax law the GDP hit for 2011 could have been about 0.9% and GDP for 2011 could have been around 1.5%.

The above projections are based on the current GDP growth rate about 2.5% as a base line.

In return for the GDP boost the national debt will be increased by about 4% in 2011 over what it would have been with no tax law. That projection assumes, of course, that the GDP growth rate did not take a bigger hit with the reduced and withdrawn stimulus. If there turned out to be a return to recession, tax revenues would take a hit and the deficit would almost certainly increase at a faster rate in that eventuality.

Considering the possibility that another dip into recession could be the alternative, the loss of nearly $190 billion in the path pursued might be a cheap cost compared to another recession which could well trigger a deep depression.

There are those who will debate my proposition above, but I will stand with it until I see better data.’

U.S. Bank Collapses Reach 157 This Year as Six More Lenders Are Shuttered Bloomberg | Regulators shuttered six banks holding a total of $1.23 billion in assets, including three in Georgia and one each in Arkansas, Minnesota and Florida, as real-estate losses drive this year’s bank failures to 157.

Oil prices rise to nearly 92 dollars AFP | World oil prices rose on Friday as the dollar fell against the euro amid improving demand for crude, analysts said.

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http://www.albertpeia.com
http://www.albertpeia.com/alresume.htm
http://www.scribd.com/alpeia
http://alpeiablog.blogspot.com

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

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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

December 21, 2010 posts

Business / Economic / Financial

California City Threatens to Shut Off Street Lights Due to Budget Crunch

WikiLeaks Founder: We Have Enough Information To Make An Exec At A Major Bank Resign Huffington Post | An upcoming data dump by WikiLeaks will be damaging enough that an executive at a major American bank will resign, the organization’s founder Julian Assange said in a recent interview.

Julian Assange Says He Has Enough Material To Make The Bosses Of A Major Bank Resign Julian Assange has enough material to make the bosses of a major bank resign, he told a Times of London reporter.

State of Disaster In July, WealthCycles.com published a blog piece called The Risk of Your State that highlighted little pieces of the slow-moving train wreck that is the fiscal situation of the U.S. states. At that point, Illinois was in a deep mess.

Tipping Point: 25 Signs That The Coming Financial Collapse Is Now Closer Then Ever The financial collapse that so many of us have been anticipating is seemingly closer then ever. Over the past several weeks, there have been a host of ominous signs for the U.S. economy.

National / World

FCC approves controversial ‘Net Neutrality’ regulations Eric W. Dolan | By a 3-2 vote Tuesday, the FCC passed so-called “Net Neutrality” rules aimed at prohibiting ISPs from discriminating between Internet traffic.

Plan to Turn Post Office Trucks Into Stasi Data Collection Nodes Kurt Nimmo | Your friendly neighborhood postal person may be soon driving a high-tech data collection vehicle.

Wikileaks: A Big Dangerous US Government Con Job F. William Engdahl | It is almost too perfectly-scripted to be true.

Homeland Security’s Coming War Against 9/11 Truth Activists Kurt Nimmo | The term “white al-Qaeda” was created for a specific reason.

FCC Approves Controversial ‘Net Neutrality’ Regulations By a 3-2 vote Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed so-called “Net Neutrality” rules aimed at prohibiting internet service providers (ISPs) from discriminating between Internet traffic.

You Are A Terrorist Paul Joseph Watson | Being a “nice guy,” supporting Ron Paul and talking about the Constitution all signs of terror.

Assange claims “people affiliated with our organization have already been assassinated” BBC | Says accuser was “bamboozled into this by police and others.”

Though Assange’s arrest was on far more tenuous grounds owing to a CIA-linked girl, Roman Polanski was similarly targeted:

Clinton Speaks: He Did It Because He Could - There Are Serial Killers On Death Row Who Have Killed Fewer People Than Unconflicted, Pathological Liar/Perjurer, Rapist, and Murderer, Psychopath criminal american clinton

· clinton Flashed ("Dropped his Drawers") Paula Jones and Implored Her To "Kiss It" (his p***s, which owing to distinctive "marking/disfigurement" she was able to describe)

· clinton "Cops a Cheap Feel/Grope" From Kathleen Willey In Attempting Prey Upon Her Perceived Vulnerability

· clintonites Threaten Dolly Kyle Browning In Attempting To Intimidate Her Into Giving False Testimony

· clinton Brutally Rapes Juanita Broaddrick

· clinton Was Asked To Leave Oxford Owing To Sexual Assault Of A Fellow Student

He Does It Because He Can

Robinson: On track to nowhere in Afghanistan (Washington Post) [ I agree with Mr. Robinson and we should be thankful that he’s watching closely and, unlike so many others, he has courage enough to say so :

‘THE OBAMA DECEPTION’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw&feature=PlayList&p=2EFAB57B44063742&playnext_from=PL&index=0&playnext=1 – well worth a look. [ The Obama Deception Number 1 on U.S. Google Trends ]

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Clinton Speaks: He Did It Because He Could - There Are Serial Killers On Death Row Who Have Killed Fewer People Than Unconflicted, Pathological Liar/Perjurer, Rapist, and Murderer, Psychopath criminal american clinton

· clinton Flashed ("Dropped his Drawers") Paula Jones and Implored Her To "Kiss It" (his p***s, which owing to distinctive "marking/disfigurement" she was able to describe)

· clinton "Cops a Cheap Feel/Grope" From Kathleen Willey In Attempting Prey Upon Her Perceived Vulnerability

· clintonites Threaten Dolly Kyle Browning In Attempting To Intimidate Her Into Giving False Testimony

· clinton Brutally Rapes Juanita Broaddrick

· clinton Was Asked To Leave Oxford Owing To Sexual Assault Of A Fellow Student

He Does It Because He Can

Background http://albertpeia.com/CIAAgentAffidavit1.jpg

Most of the young men lucky enough to get into the Guard fulfilled their obligations. George W. Bush did not. He was absent without leave, AWOL, for over a year. Not surprisingly, this got little attention from the corporate media...

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Of the three generations of Bush men mentioned on this site, the most evil and most dangerous by far is George Bush, Sr.

The Bush family came by their wealth on the backs of 11 million dead. Prescott Bush, along with partner E. Ronald Harriman, supplied financial aid and raw materials to Hitler's Third Reich.

In 1942, Bush/Harriman companies were seized under the Trading with the Enemy Act: the Union Banking Corporation, the Holland-American Trading Corporation, the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation and Silesian-American Corporation.

After the war, the CIA recruited many former Nazis to work for them, escaping prosecution for war crimes. Klaus Barbie, infamous for ordering the murder of French children, was among them. He was, however, eventually caught and returned to France to stand trial.

… Shortly before the 9/11 attacks, John Ashcroft stopped flying commercial and started flying on government-chartered planes. Why?

In fact, the George W. Bush received many warnings that he disregarded. Bush knew, and he did nothing. Why?

Oil, that's why. And a free rein to rape the Constitution.

…- David Blomstrom ]

Oil prices rise to nearly 92 dollars AFP | World oil prices rose on Friday as the dollar fell against the euro amid improving demand for crude, analysts said.

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