Unemployment Figures FAR weaker than claimed

"Initial Claims" were 584,000 today, scream the headlines, and the pumpers all claim this is "better than expected" when looking at continuing claims, which declined slightly to 6.416 million on a 4-week rolling basis.

But those numbers don't include the people who rolled off the original 13 week unemployment rolls and onto the extended programs (which go out to 52 weeks in many cases), and as such the number is being dramatically under-reported.

That's a problem - see, there are 2,656,879 people in that bin, an increase of 24,518 from the prior week, and worse, 352,482 people rolled off the 13 week program last week!

So the real increase was about 50,000 people, not 24,000 in the current week, because you have to add back in those that have been removed from the count but are still unemployed!

Again: 352,483 people, or well over half of the newly-filed claims, rolled off the original 13 week benefits onto extended benefits. This is where the "decrease" in the 4-week moving average came from. This little machination means that there was not actual decrease in the 4-week moving average of people on unemployment; to the contrary those on unemployment increased, not decreased!

"Extended benefits" are people who cannot find work within three months of being laid off, and are being forced onto the expanded benefit programs. Until the moving average change drops to close to zero including extended benefits the labor market is not slowing its rate of contraction!

Worse, we're going to start losing people off the "extended" benefits soon (next month) which will make it nearly impossible to count the real number of unemployed, and those who drop off extended benefits will have no income whatsoever, which means they won't be paying taxes - or spending.

The total count of people on both 13 week and extended benefits (raw numbers, not seasonally adjusted) is 8.718 million, another new record.

Don't believe the "green shoot" callers - this report was horrendous and shows continued dramatic contraction in the workforce and economy.
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Recession Much Worse than expected: A Depression perhaps?

July 31 (Bloomberg) -- The first 12 months of the U.S. recession saw the economy shrink more than twice as much as previously estimated, reflecting even bigger declines in consumer spending and housing, revised figures showed.

The world’s largest economy contracted 1.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the last three months of 2008, compared with the 0.8 percent drop previously on the books, the Commerce Department said today in Washington.

“The current downturn beginning in 2008 is more pronounced,” Steven Landefeld, director of the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, said in a press briefing this week. The revisions were in line with past experience in which initial figures tended to underestimate the severity of contractions during their early stages, he said.

The updated statistics also showed that Americans earned more over the last 10 years and socked away a larger share of that cash in savings. The report signals the process of repairing tattered balance sheets following the biggest drop in household wealth on record may be further along than anticipated.
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The Reason Why We are Going into A Deep Economic Depression

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

1,200 Rhode Island businesses face closure over sales tax

PROVIDENCE — State tax officials have put more than 1,200 businesses across the state on notice this week that they are out of business unless they pay their overdue sales taxes immediately.

For most, that action came in the form of a personal visit from the state Division of Taxation, ordering business owners to lock their doors at once.

By Wednesday, a line of people had queued up inside the Department of Administration building on Smith Hill, waiting their turn to plead their case to a state revenue agent. Some were angry. Others frustrated.

“I understand the state needs money, but to put pressure on the small guy or the moderate guy that’s struggling, it’s not going to do any good,” said Mike Suriani, who owns an electrical supply company in South Providence.
(snippet)
The permits expired on June 30, and the last in a series of letters sent to owners in recent months said they would not be issued new permits without straightening out their tax situation. In the interim, they were told: “You are conducting business without a permit and must cease immediately.”

A handful in line Wednesday said the process wasn’t quite that simple. Desmond Clark, who owns a small video-game store in North Providence, said he spent months trying to negotiate a payment plan with the state that would allow him to keep current on owed taxes, while staying afloat in a tough economy.

“They didn’t want to hear it. They didn’t want any payment plan whatsoever,” said Clark.
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More than 1000 Banks to fail as the "Recession" intensifies

By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- More than 1,000 banks may fail during the next three to five years as the recession intensifies and loan losses climb, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets estimated on Monday.

In 2008, analyst Gerard Cassidy forecast 200 to 300 bank failures, but now he says the environment has deteriorated since then.See 2008 story on bank failures

"Residential mortgage delinquencies remain at record levels, home-equity loan defaults are steadily rising and residential construction and land loan non-performing assets are skyrocketing for lenders with excess exposure to the weakest housing markets in the U.S.," Cassidy wrote in a note to clients.

"In conjunction with the slowdown in the economy, credit deterioration has accelerated in the commercial and industrial and commercial real estate loan areas," he said.

Big Company Losses Pile Up-The Media Lies

Is this reason why the market is surging?
Headlines:
Upbeat earnings reports and new data on unemployment gave Wall Street a reason to continue its surge.

Sony Posts $390.5 Million Loss
The electronics and entertainment giant maintained its forecast for a second straight year of red ink as the global slump continued to weigh on its bottom line.
Volkswagen 6-Month Profit Falls Nearly 81%
The automaker cited decreased demand amid the recession and said that total sales this year will be down from 2008.
Renault Posts Loss of $3.8 Billion
Renault said Thursday that it lost $3.82 billion, but noted that the “free fall” in auto sales worldwide decelerated in the second quarter.
Mazda and Mitsubishi Motors Post Losses
Both automakers’ annual forecasts rely on cost cuts to offset weak demand.
Profit Dropped 66% in Quarter at Exxon Mobil
Exxon’s report caps a week of lower earnings in the energy industry after the tumble of oil prices since last year.
Time Warner net income drops 34%
Info From: NY TIMES

A 3 Trillion Dollar Collapse Coming

The commercial real estate bust is going to be legendary. We are talking trillions of dollars. The attention of Americans is being pulled away by massive market volatility that has seen the S&P 500 shoot up 44 percent in four months. Yet the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve have kept their eye on this market and have started examining a “Plan C” focused on bailing out this industry even before major problems occur. The new preemptive doctrine of bailouts. That is, they want to saddle the taxpayer with further burdens on some of the most speculative bets known to humankind.

First, it is certain that commercial real estate will have problems. If we examine certain vacancy rates, we see that they are already starting to creep up: (chart above)

The above chart is merely reflecting the deep contraction in the real economy. Businesses are needing less and less of that plentiful office space that is floating in the market. So much for the dream of an Eames Lounge chair sitting in your office space, entertaining clients while the $5,000 monthly lease payment sits on your mahogany desk. On the other hand, if you are looking for retail space you will find some room to negotiate.
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ARIZONA DESPERATE! Selling buildings
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Panic for the US Government and the Dollar

(Snippet)
It’s not for nothing that the Goldman Sachs Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner is hotfooting it around the world lately, last week to Saudi Arabia and the UAE… last month to China.

The purpose of his trip, Geithner told reporters in Paris, he was doing this tour ”to make sure we keep working with governments around the world to continue to provide enough support to lift this global economy back to a sustained pattern of growth."
Translation: Look here, we’re all in this together. If you jump ship now, we’re all doomed… DOOMED, I say!

But the fact remains that the foreign holders of U.S. dollars have it within their ability – either deliberately or inadvertently as the result of a panic setting in – to literally destroy the U.S. currency.

The latest report shows Russia and longtime monetary ally Japan edging toward the door. China and the oil-exporting nations continue to convert an increasingly moderate amount of their trade surplus into Treasury bills – but not on a nearly large enough scale to meet the inflated (and inflating) borrowing needs of the utterly bankrupt U.S. government. And how long will they continue to show up, when an increasing number of other foreign buyers start selling their Treasuries? No one likes to be the last one to leave a party, especially when the bananas flambé has tipped over on the floor and the curtains are on fire.

Put simply, the only thing now standing between the U.S. dollar holding its own and an almost overnight debasement (and history has shown us that when things go wrong with a currency, they can go wrong very quickly) is the willingness of foreigners to play nice. This was never a threat that the Japanese had to deal with during the worst of their recent dark days, but it’s a very real risk here and now in the United States.

That that risk sits on top of the monetary inflation that has been the steady response of the U.S. government so far – and will continue to be its response as the economy further erodes – is not something to be sniffed at.

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We are in the Early Days Of a Depression

Scams And Bailouts The Cause of World Depression

Economic destruction of America a real threat, debts too massive for paper to absorb, mysteries still surround Madoff, the Goldman scam, 57 banks have now gone under this year, families struggle to pay college bills, TARP a mystery to taxpayers, no stability at AIG, jobless benefits drying up for workers
The US Illuminists are gambling big. This is the most dangerous part of their strategy, namely, how to take down America and the dollar without destroying themselves in the process, both financially and politically. They are going to get smoked. Even now the stock, bond and commodities markets are spiraling out of their control, and their new outrageous salaries and bonuses are about to be debauched as they are left holding the bag with huge positions in dollar-denominated paper assets. They will try to dump this paper without sending gold and silver on a moon-shot, but they are doomed to failure. The amounts of paper assets and debt are simply too massive, and the commodities markets and other tangible assets are too small to absorb these gargantuan sums of money and credit without exploding to the upside. Just keep buying gold, silver and their related shares on the dips, and you just can't lose in the long term. The trend is your friend. Gold and silver are trending up, and stocks, bonds and derivatives are trending down - way down!!!

About two months ago our sources informed us that the US government had begun sending large amounts of cash to embassies throughout the world to be exchanged for local currency. We have had a number of reports that this in fact has been the case.

Having been involved in counterintelligence and for some 50 years in economics and finance, I believe this is a precursor to problems centered around the US dollar.
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The Queens Financial Advisors should be Street Cleaners

Published: July 27 2009 20:13 | Last updated: July 27 2009 20:13
There is nothing like a monarch’s pointed question to make the great and good squirm. Queen Elizabeth stumped her hosts at the London School of Economics by asking why no one had seen the financial crisis coming. Scholars at that and other universities should feel the sting: if they cannot be counted on to spot dangers to the economy, why have economists at all?

Some of Britain’s leading economic experts have now sent the Queen a reply. They point out that some did foresee the crisis, prominent economists included. What failed was the “collective imagination of many bright people”.


More can be said. The economics profession’s obliviousness to imminent collapse has led it to search whatever soul it may have to learn where it went astray. A prime suspect is a theory too optimistic about the rationality of people’s choices and the possibility of capturing them in mathematics.

The truth may be simpler and more depressing: that no economic theory can perform the feats its users have come to expect of it. Economics is unlikely ever to be very good at predicting the future. Too much of what happens in an economy depends on what people expect to happen. Even state-of-the-art forecasts are therefore better guides to the present mood than the future. though they may also be self-fulfilling prophecies.

Dabbling in paradox limits the use of economics as a practical guide. Today the profession’s best advice must convince politicians and the public to combat a crisis born of insufficient thrift by a recourse to record borrowing. Those who saw danger had no easier task: even reminding people of gravity’s existence is a hard sell when everything is going up.

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The SAD Reality of Retail Closing: Recession Over?

Here are many photos of retail outlets that have closed. If you read that the recession is over, the only way to believe this is true, are by the haunting photos..

Slide Show

Dubai: Checks Bouncing all over the place

Up to one quarter of all the cheques written in Dubai may be bouncing as expatriate residents in the Gulf state struggle as the economy slows.

Blank cheques are used to underwrite financial arrangements, such as credit cards, in Dubai, guaranteeing future payments such as a rental agreement or bank loan.

This system arose in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which includes Dubai, because of the difficulty of doing credit checks on foreign workers. As many of these workers have now lost their jobs in the recession, the number of bounced cheques has risen.

The penalty for failing to honour a cheque is severe and some people have ended up in jail. Dubai’s police chief said this year that about one fifth of all prisoners in the emirate were there because of bounced cheques. Most of these are likely to be foreign workers.

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FOOD CRISIS: MANY will Starve WORLDWIDE

As of July 15th Bulgarian farmers had harvested around 30% of the nation's wheat crop, with yields averaging 3.2 MT/hectare, according to the Agriculture Ministry.

They've trimmed their final wheat production estimate from 3.6-3.7 MMT to 3.5-3.6 MMT, around 20% lower than last season's output.
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Argentine Wheat Plantings Revised Lower Again
Argentine farmers will plant just 2.6 million hectares of winter wheat for the 2009/10 season, according to Oil World. That's 200,000 hectares down on their last estimate and a stunning 2.1 million less than was planted in 2008/09.

Last season's drought-ravaged crop only managed to yield 2 MT/hectare, and subsoil moisture levels have been depleted even further since then.

Of course it's not all about drought, part of the reason behind lower plantings is a two fingered salute to the government and their export restrictions.

Brazil Turns To US For Wheat

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CANADIAN Crop Development Lags
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Much More Here

VERIZON unions endorsed OBAMA: 8000 Employees Laid off

Verizon To Cut 8,000 Employee And Contractor Jobs
Quote


By Associated Press
11:19 AM EDT, July 27, 2009

NEW YORK (AP) — Phone company Verizon says it will cut 8,000 jobs from among employees and contractors before the end of the year to keep costs in line as the recession saps demand from businesses for telecommunications services.

Executives said the cuts will come from the wireline side of the business.

In recent years, New York-based Verizon Communications Inc. has balanced layoffs in its wireline business with hiring in wireless, making for a net increase.

But Chief Operating Officer Denny Strigl says that will not be the case this time. He says there will be no large-scale hiring in wireless until the recession is over.
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Federal Reserve Board Chairman: This is WORSE than the Great Depression

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke discussed the economy with average Americans on Sunday, saying the current financial crisis could be even more virulent than the Great Depression.

"A lot of things happened, a lot came together, [and] created probably the worst financial crisis, certainly since the Great Depression and possibly even including the Great Depression," Bernanke said at the start of a town-hall meeting in Kansas City.

Bernanke defended the Fed's extraordinary moves, which have included slashing interest rates to zero, pumping billions of dollars to keep credit markets open, and buying Treasurys and mortgage debt to keep long-term interest rates low.

"I was not going to be the Federal Reserve chairman who presided over the second Great Depression," he said.

The event is being televised over three nights, beginning Monday, by U.S. public television network PBS. Members of the public, screened by PBS, were able to ask questions.

Many questioners expressed unhappiness with the "too big to fail" doctrine. One asked when Bernanke would get around to firing the leadership of banks that had to accept..
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Will Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson and Timothy Geithner be charged with Obstruction?

According to a 250-page report submitted to Congress by Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General in charge of oversight of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the Ben Bernanke-led Federal Reserve and the Timothy Geithner-led US Treasury Department are obstructing justice by not cooperating with efforts to maintain transparency in the federal government’s economic bailout program.

Whether this obstruction could lead to prosecution is unknown, but Bernanke and Geithner are playing with fire because Barofsky is the only one of three monitors over the TARP program that has the authority to file criminal charges and has already successfully filed against a Tennessee banker who received TARP funds. That banker pled guilty in April.

Barofsky does not have to go to the Justice Department as his office has authority to file criminal charges without first obtaining approval from the US Attorney General Eric Holder.
When the US Treasury Department was not transparent about who received funds under the TARP program, Barofsky threatened to obtain information directly from banking institutions. Geithner argued that such an accounting was impossible and impractical, if not even impossible, and would be a waste of time.

Barofsky went around the US Treasury Department and The Federal Reserve and surveyed 364 financial institutions directly. The results of Barofsky’s survey and other tips received over a fraud hotline have resulted in 35 criminal investigations which are now underway.

The big question is whether names like Hank Paulson, former head of the Treasury, or Geithner, the current US Treasury chief, or the Federal Reserve’s Bernanke, are on Barofsky's list.
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There Is A Hunger Coming Like A Run-Away Freight Train: Created By Congress

By: Clint Richardson
I've driven the almost 400 mile stretch of Interstate 5 from L.A. to Sacramento dozens of times. Quite honestly, it's as boring as it gets. with only the usual gas stations, mini-marts, fast-food, home-cookin' restaurants, and strangely a newer batch of Starbuck's Coffee shops sprouting up everywhere. In between... farms, orchards, cattle, and dirt.
On July 15th, as I began my trip to Utah, I came off the Grapevine decline and hit the flat 250 or so mile stretch of interstate which begins the farming belt in the valley. Almost immediately I noticed what I had only heard about on the radio and in the papers. Where once there were vast fields of green, now there where empty, barely recognizable rows of unplanted dirt and growing weeds. Only sporadically at first, but once I passed Bakersfield and for about a 200 mile stretch, I could not believe my eyes. Field after field laid fallow. And not really fallow, but unattended... as if it was not going to be planted in the near future either.
Signs were staked in the ground on almost every patch of barren farmland. The most common one, which was yellow and obviously a group effort to wake up the sleeping travelers of their future plight, read:
"CONGRESS CREATED DUST BOWL"
Others, which looked more homemade were posted on non-operational farm equipment parked as close to the freeway as possible, stated things like:
"FOOD ONLY GROWS WHERE WATER FLOWS" -and-
"NO WATER = NO JOBS = NO FUTURE"
At one point, after 150 miles or so of seeing this horror, I broke down in tears and had to pull over to the side of the road. I saw the aqueduct, which followed Interstate 5 most of the way, and large fields of dead trees which were planted just a few feet from the flowing cement river. I imagined how those trees would feel, imprisoned in the dying dirt by their own roots, if they could indeed comprehend that their source of life was just a stones throw away.
It was like some horrific story-book come to life; science fiction in real time. I was thinking of the farmers and their families and wondering what would become of them and their land. I was thinking about the consequences of hundreds of miles of food no longer being grown, and adding together the other states like Campo, Colorado which have the same situation... only planting 60% of their crops this year.
This deadness went on until the brink of civilization once again began to show. When I approached the Stockton/Modesto highway interchange area the carnage seemed to stop, and the fields appeared to be healthy and bountiful. I can only guess that this is because more people drive on that stretch of the freeway, and so the powers that be are trying to keep up appearances. No other explaination came to mind.
To the readers of this, I can only say that living in the city has literally blinded me to the truth, even though I knew it was happening. I wonder how many other things I ignore? Many economists and trends predictors have called for food shortages and food riots in the fall, and with what I saw last week, I have new reason to believe them.
But then, that's the real problem isn't it? Belief...
If you believe that the food will continue to flow (magically appearing on store shelves in a grocery store near you) and just dismiss the very real claims of shortages worldwide, including a severe wheat shortage in this country due to a harmfull fungus, then I might boldy say that you deserve whatever fate befalls you.
I challenge you all to take a drive up the 5 and see this for yourself. Please! Don't let this go unseen. If you are camera or video savy, I think it would be a really great photo exibit or website showing the true nature of our common problem. And you better believe, as you take your daily shower, flush your toilet, and water your fertilized-non-edible grassy yards, that this is indeed a Congress created crisis. So please tell as many people about it as possible.
Lastly, if you haven't already... buy storable food! Go to the dollar store and buy rice and beans. Buy pasta, canned and jar foods, or anything with a shelf-life of more than 6 months.
What's the worse that can happen? You'll have food for 6 months.
What's the best that can happen? You'll have food for 6 months.
Take care. Spread this information. Get mad. Fight tyranny. And...
Don't be a sheep.
Clint Richardson

Proof: Water is Turned off by CONGRESS:
4 Minute Video

National Debt up 400,000 Percent since 1913!

(snippet) Great Article from the BurningPlatform.com
The corruption became more insidious with the creation of the Federal Reserve and the institution of the Federal income tax in 1913. The levers of money printing and raising taxes gave the select few (Pigs) the wherewithal to control and manipulate the working class population. Debt and taxes are the friends of a corrupt politician. The Cabal of bankers who control the Federal Reserve has been printing money for 96 years to such an extent that the U.S. dollar has lost 96% of its purchasing power versus gold. But, with Orwellian irony our government leaders proclaim a “strong dollar policy”. This is a lie. The only way out of the current colossal debt dilemma is by allowing our currency to depreciate even more so that the debt becomes less burdensome in dollar terms. The National Debt is now $11.6 trillion. The National Debt in 1913 was $2.9 billion. Therefore, the National Debt has gone up by 400,000% in 96 years. FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND PERCENT! I had to go back and check my calculation three times. The people we elected to Congress have spent $11.6 trillion more than the government has generated in revenues, with $10 trillion of it accumulated since 1981.

Despite this “investment” spending by our elected officials, the country’s infrastructure is crumbling, we import 66% of our energy supplies versus 28% in 1982, our public education system is on par with a Third World country, our healthcare system is bloated, expensive and corrupt, and we have racked up another $56 trillion of future liabilities for unfulfillable promises made by our myopic leaders. The Bills passed by Congress (written by lobbyists) exceed 1,000 pages, with payoffs and pork to constituents, corporate contributors and other influential allies. These Bills are not even read by our leaders before being passed. Hundreds of pages of amendments are added at 3:00 am.
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Bob Chapman with Alex Jones: Financial Collapse Planned

MSNBC running down the Fraudulent Fed

MSNBC's explanatory take on how the Federal Reserve "bailed" the system out and why the Fed is so keen on perpetuating the secrecy.

Eliot Spitzer: "The Fed is a Ponzi scheme, an inside job, it is outrageous, it is time for congress to say enough of this"

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Largest Trading Partner of the US, Big seller of Treasuries

By Deborah Levine


It's the quiet ones that surprise you.

Brazil and Canada were among big sellers of Treasurys in the latest month for which data is available and the previous year, catching analysts off guard and raising speculation that quieter nations may be concerned about investing in the U.S.

Brazil and Russia, which along with India and China are part of the so-called BRIC countries, have expressed concern with the strength of the U.S. dollar. It was therefore not so surprising that the two countries reduced their holdings of Treasurys in May, according to the latest data available from the Treasury International Capital report released last week. The two are among the largest holders of Treasurys.

But Canada, the biggest trading partner for the U.S., has publicly said nothing of the sort. Taiwan and France were also notable sellers of Treasurys in the latest month.

"It's a bit like friendly fire," said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist at The Bank of New York Mellon. "We saw some record selling of long-term Treasurys and that's exactly the kind of thing Wall Street and the government have been worried about for years, and it came from some unexpected places."
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Dead Left Unclaimed Across the US: No money for burial

Bodies left unclaimed, cadavers stacked high in morgues and burial rates tumbling as loved ones cut funeral costs: the crippling recession is even haunting the dead across the United States.

In Los Angeles, the local coroner's office has witnessed an unprecedented spike in the number of corpses unclaimed by families who cannot afford the costs of a burial or cremation.

"The reason we are hearing from the families is the economic downturn," Los Angeles County Coroner's chief investigator Craig Harvey told AFP. "They tell us they don't have the means to afford funerals."

In the past 12 months, the coroner's office, which is responsible for handling bodies from homicides and suspicious deaths, carried out 36 percent more cremations than the previous year, jumping to 712 from 525. At the Los Angeles County morgue meanwhile, the cremation figure rose by 25 percent.

Cremations are usually carried out around one month after death if no-one from the deceased's family comes forward to claim the body. The ashes are then stored for two to three years before being dispersed in a communal grave.

Simply claiming a body from the county costs 200 dollars and can run up to 452 if the deceased has been cremated.

A private cremation can cost up to 1,000 dollars while the average price of a funeral weighs in at around 7,300 dollars, according to the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA).

While the recession is by no means the first that California has had to weather over the years, Harvey said he has never known previous downturns to impact the workings of the coroner's office and morgues as severely.

"It seems that this crisis has hit a greater number of people," he told AFP.

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Economic Devastation Across the Nation. Rothchild's Estimated Worth

Sixteen states, with exhausted funds, are now paying benefits with borrowed cash, and their number could double by the year’s end.

Call centers and Web sites have been overwhelmed, leaving frustrated workers sometimes fighting for days to file an application.

While the strained program still makes more than 80 percent of initial payments within three weeks — slightly below the standard set under federal law — cases that require individual review are especially prone to delay. Thirty-eight states are failing to make those decisions within the federal deadline.

For workers who survive a paycheck at a time, even a week’s delay can mean a missed rent payment or foregone meals.

'Terrified'
Kenneth Kottwitz, a laid-off cabinet maker in Phoenix, waited three months for his benefits to arrive. He exhausted his savings, lost his apartment and moved to a homeless shelter.

Luis Coronel, a janitor at a San Francisco hotel, got $6,000 in back benefits after winning an appeal. But in the six months he spent waiting, there were times when he and his pregnant wife could not afford to eat.

“I was terrified my wife and daughter would have to live on the street,” Mr. Coronel said.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said: “Obviously, some of our states were in a pickle. The system wasn’t prepared to deal with the enormity of the calls coming in.”

The program’s problems, though well known, were brushed aside when unemployment was low.
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Rothchild's ESTIMATED worth:
Morton (1962) noted that the Rothschild wealth was estimated at over $6 billion US in 1850. Not a significant amount in today's dollars; however, consider the potential future value compounded over 147 years!

Taking $6 billion (and assuming no erosion of the wealth base) and compounding that figure at various returns on investment (a conservative range of 4% to 8%) would suggest the following net worth of the Rothschild family enterprise:

$1.9 trillion US (@ 4%)
$7.8 trillion US (@ 5%)
$31.5 trillion US (@ 6%)
$125,189.1 trillion US (@ 7%)
$491,409.0 trillion US (@ 8%)
IS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AND REUTERS OWNED BY ROTHCHILDS?:
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Commercial Construction Down 71 Per Cent

The Associated General Contractors of America reported a national drop in commercial construction of 71 percent during June compared with the previous month.

The drop wiped out gains seen in May, when commercial construction rose 27 percent.

“Every construction category declined significantly in June,” said Jim Haughey, an economist for Reed Construction, in a statement. “The May/June boom/bust is substantially random.”

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Next Financial Global Crisis? Public DEBT

The cloud of the global financial meltdown has not even cleared, yet another crisis of massive proportions looms on the horizon: global sovereign (public) debt.

This crisis, like so many others, has its root in the free flow of credit from the preceding economic boom years. The market prices of assets were rising steadily. Rising valuations, especially where they were based on improving revenues from robust economic activity, led to rising income streams for governments. This encouraged governments to borrow more, perhaps often to expand services – and the bureaucracy required to offer services – although sometimes to improve infrastructure.

At the same time, rising market prices for financial assets encouraged more savers and investors into the market. That led to an increasing supply of investable funds, which drove demand for sovereign and municipal debt (in addition to the mortgage-backed securities). This process, driven by the financial services industry instead of the real economy, is eerily similar to the driving forces behind the “subprime crisis.” The demand for public offerings pulled more debt issuance out of borrowers with seemingly little concern for repayment: the financial sector gains its profits from issuance fees, trading fees, underwriting fees, etc. As in the case of mortgages, it will be those who buy and hold the debt, along with the borrowers, who will suffer the consequences.

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We are in the Early Stage of a Depression

Sprott Comment July 2009

100 Billion Dollars in Pension Funds-GONE

Marc Lifsher Reporting From Sacramento -- With a state budget agreement at hand, look for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to tackle the state's troubled retirement system.

On Tuesday, the country's two biggest public pension funds reported losing almost $100 billion in the fiscal year that ended June 30. And the governor is expected to highlight the new numbers as he renews a campaign to trim the cost of providing lifetime, fixed benefits to hundreds of thousands of government retirees.
No long-term fix is more important to our state's solvency," Schwarzenegger wrote in an opinion column in The Times this month. The governor plans to ask the Legislature to approve changes in the system.

The state, he said, would save money by giving smaller pensions to new state workers through changing "our unsustainable retiree pension formulas."

The governor's push for a pension overhaul took on a new urgency when the California Public Employees' Retirement System and a sister agency, the California State Teachers' Retirement System, separately announced that they'd lost about a quarter of the value of their investment portfolios. CalPERS' preliminary losses were $56.2 billion, while the teachers' retirement system lost $43.4 billion.
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Glimpse of Economic Crash to Come for USA, Britain and Europe

For a glimpse of what awaits Britain, Europe, and America as budget deficits spiral to war-time levels, look at what is happening to the Irish welfare state.

Events have already forced Premier Brian Cowen to carry out the harshest assault yet seen on the public services of a modern Western state. He has passed two emergency budgets to stop the deficit soaring to 15pc of GDP. They have not been enough. The expert An Bord Snip report said last week that Dublin must cut deeper, or risk a disastrous debt compound trap.

A further 17,000 state jobs must go (equal to 1.25m in the US), though unemployment is already 12% and heading for 16% next year.


Education must be cut 8pc. Scores of rural schools must close, and 6,900 teachers must go. "The attacks outlined in this report would represent an education disaster and light a short fuse on a social time bomb", said the Teachers Union of Ireland.

Nobody is spared. Social welfare payments must be cut 5pc, child benefit by 20%. The Garda (police), already smarting from a 7% pay cut, may have to buy their own uniforms. Hospital visits could cost £107 a day, etc, etc.

"Something has to give," said Professor Colm McCarthy, the report's author. "We're borrowing €400m (£345m) a week at a penalty interest."

No doubt Ireland has been the victim of a savagely tight monetary policy - given its specific needs. But the deeper truth is that Britain, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, the US, and Japan are in varying states of fiscal ruin, and those tipping into demographic decline (unlike young Ireland) have an underlying cancer that is even more deadly. The West cannot support its gold-plated state structures from an aging workforce and depleted tax base.

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6.7 Trillion Dollar Commercial Real Estate Bust to Dwarf Housing Collapse

TAMPA - The weakening commercial real estate market is braced for a bust that experts say could cause even more damage to the local economy than the housing collapse.

"Any projects built in the last five years, especially those built near new residential developments, are at risk," said Shari Olefson, a Tampa real estate attorney with Fowler, White and Boggs. "I'm hearing from a lot of owners who just want to walk away, just as homeowners are turning over the keys."

Florida cities already are among the nation's hardest-hit by home foreclosures. Similar problems in the commercial real estate market would cause the recovery of the economy to take even longer. That's worrisome because estimates call for the commercial real estate market, valued at about $6.7 trillion nationally, to see half of its loans due over the next three years.

At the same time, U.S. banks have been charging off soured commercial mortgages at the fastest pace in nearly 20 years, according to a recent analysis by The Wall Street Journal. At the current pace, losses on loans to finance offices, shopping malls, hotels, apartments and other commercial property could reach about $30 billion by the end of 2009.
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Alan Grayson: "Which Foreigners Got the Fed's $500,000,000,000?" Bernanke: "I Don't Know."

The Dark Years Are Here

The real unemployment in the US is 20% or 30 million. These are the real unadjusted figures calculated on the same basis as the official figures before the method of the calculation was changed in the 1990’s. Reported government figures, especially in the US, are continually manipulated in order to suit the political aims of the government. Therefore, one should not give any credence to the published figures. Most governments mislead the people most of the time.


With 20% unemployment in the US we are already approaching the levels in the 1930’s when peak total unemployment reached 25%. The 20% current level is the non-farm unemployed and is still a lot lower than the non-farm peak figure in the 1930’s which was 35% unemployed.


Since we are still in the early stages of this crisis, it is our firm opinion that non-farm unemployment levels will reach 35% at least in the US in the next few years.


But even the current figure of 30 million unemployed is a catastrophe. Adding dependants to every unemployed person there are currently 100 million people affected by unemployment in the US. In the next three months 3 million unemployed will fall out of the social security safety-net. These are the people who were laid off in the second half of 2008. Including their families this means that around 10 million people will become destitute between now and September with no social security and no savings. If we then add the 4 million that were made redundant in the first half of 2009 that will result in an additional 13 million people including families will become destitute around Christmas. This is a disaster of unimaginable consequences that will affect the whole fabric of American society.


The consequences will be social, political, financial and the effects on the US economy will be of a magnitude which is substantially greater than during the Depression of the 1930’s. We must remember that none of the problems in the financial system have been resolved but only put on a very temporary hold. The rise in unemployment combined with the reduction in consumption will lead to the next and much more severe banking crisis.

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Families Brace For The Coming Economic Disaster

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Fraud Continues:Morgan Stanley pays damages for Precious Metals Fraud

I have been warning people for several months not to confuse “bullion-ETF's” with actually owning real gold and silver (see “Bullion-ETF's: a multi-purpose scam”). In the case of silver, I've pointed out that it simply isn't possible that both the silver bullion-ETF's and the massive “short” positions at the Comex could be fully-backed since the two total more than 100% of existing inventories – with nothing left over for the other 95% of the world (see “History of Silver, Part III: inventories gone!”). What is important to note is that the bullion banks with those massive, short positions are also the custodians for most of the silver (supposedly) “owned” by the bullion-ETF's.

Now, this week we find out that one of the members of the U.S. financial crime syndicate has agreed to pay a multi-million dollar fine for pretending to buy and hold bullion on behalf of clients. This is not the first time that Wall Street banks have been caught engaging in bullion-fraud, and it won't be the last.

Despite the rising reek of corruption, we have a scenario where the bullion-ETF's claim to be fully-backed because they can produce serial numbers for the gold and silver bars they claim to own. However, since the massive short positions of the bullion-banks are NEVER audited, there is a potential shortage here of billions of dollars in bullion – and in the case of the silver bullion-ETF's, there is nothing hypothetical about it. There simply can't be enough silver to back everyone.

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United States Postal Service going into Default-IOU'S Next

On July 14, unions representing United States Postal Service (USPS) workers wrote the White House with "extreme urgency" asking for a meeting to address lack of funding for both employee payroll in October and health benefits for retired employees.

The letter, which the FederalTimes.com blog provided a scanned copy late last week, says:

"[USPS] top executives are now saying that the USPS will default on a $5.4 billion payment to prefund future retiree health benefits on September 30, 2009. And its government affairs representative are now telling Congressional staff that the Postal Service may not be able to make payroll in October and will be forced to issue IOUs instead."

The letter was co-signed by the presidents of the American Postal Workers Union, National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, National Association of Letter Carriers and National Postal Mailhandlers Union, and sent to White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Jim Messina.

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U.S. Rescue May Reach $23.7 Trillion

U.S. Rescue May Reach $23.7 Trillion, Barofsky Says (Update1)

By Dawn Kopecki and Catherine Dodge

July 20 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. taxpayers may be on the hook for as much as $23.7 trillion to bolster the economy and bail out financial companies, said Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The Treasury’s $700 billion bank-investment program represents a fraction of all federal support to resuscitate the U.S. financial system, including $6.8 trillion in aid offered by the Federal Reserve, Barofsky said in a report released today.

“TARP has evolved into a program of unprecedented scope, scale and complexity,” Barofsky said in testimony prepared for a hearing tomorrow before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Costs include $2.3 trillion in programs offered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., $7.4 trillion in TARP and other aid from the Treasury and $7.2 trillion in federal money for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, credit unions, Veterans Affairs and other federal programs, he said.

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Economy is so bad: Whitehouse trying to figure how to spin the words on BUDGET DELAY

WASHINGTON — The White House is being forced to acknowledge the wide gap between its once-upbeat predictions about the economy and today's bleak landscape.

The administration's annual midsummer budget update is sure to show higher deficits and unemployment and slower growth than projected in President Barack Obama's budget in February and update in May, and that could complicate his efforts to get his signature health care and global-warming proposals through Congress.

The release of the update — usually scheduled for mid-July — has been put off until the middle of next month, giving rise to speculation the White House is delaying the bad news at least until Congress leaves town on its August 7 summer recess.

The administration is pressing for votes before then on its $1 trillion health care initiative, which lawmakers are arguing over how to finance.

The White House budget director, Peter Orszag, said on Sunday that the administration believes the "chances are high" of getting a health care bill by then. But new analyses showing runaway costs are jeopardizing Senate passage.

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Paulson Admitting he made $200 Million without paying TAXES

Europe on the Brink of Collapse: The World to Follow

We have avoided Armageddon, at least for now. The cost to the US taxpayer has been a few trillion. Some in the media are loudly announcing the end of the recession. But we are not out of the woods yet. There are a few more bumps in the road. Actually, some of them are quite steep hills. As big as the subprime problem? Maybe.

When asked a few weeks ago what was my biggest short-term concern, I quickly replied, "European banks have the potential to create significant risk for the entire worldwide system." This week we will glance "over the pond" to see what gives me cause for concern. Then we briefly look at a few of the bumps I mentioned, which are likely to stretch out any recovery, and maybe even dip us back into recession.

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US Government: 2 Lbs of Ham for: $1,191,200

Gov paying over a half million dollars a pound for sliced ham?
Thomas Lifson
According to this site, the new Obama website showing us how much the country is being stimulated by government spending, the taxpayers are buying sliced frozen ham at $550,000 per pound. I wonder what they would pay for fresh ham?


And here I thought prosciutto was expensive. Is this going to be served to guests at one of the many parties the Obamas like to throw? Half million dollar a pound ham won't really uimpress the Saudis, if Obama offers it to them, no matter how low he bows.

This makes the $100/lb wagyu steaks used at White House parties look like a bargain.
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View it HERE

MAD YET?
Lets look at this closer:2 POUND FROZEN HAM SLICED 1,191,200
More...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $2,531,600 FOR 'HAM, WATER ADDED, COOKED, FROZEN, SLICED, 2-LB'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,191,200 FOR '2 POUND FROZEN HAM SLICED'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $351,807 FOR 'REPLACE AND UPGRADE THE DUMBWAITER'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,562,568 FOR 'MOZZARELLA CHEESE'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $5,708,260 FOR 'PROCESS CHEESE'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $16,784,272 FOR 'CANNED PORK'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,444,100 FOR 'REPAIR DOOR BLDG 5112'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $541,119 FOR 'INSTALL TRAFFIC SIGNAL'...

California Closes Courts, State Office to save Cash

California closes state offices to save cash

Jul 17 10:34 AM US/Eastern


California's fiscal crisis has left the US state without courts and some administration offices were ordered to close on Friday.
A predicted 24 billion dollar budget deficit over the next two years has forced Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to order massive cost-cutting measures.

"We will be closed this Friday, as the last and the oncoming Friday, due to the ordering of three furlough days each month by the governor," an official from the Hollywood Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office, which issues driver's licenses, told AFP.

The DMV is one of many state offices to close on Friday, one of three unpaid leave days a month ordered for state workers to help the government reduce its expenses.

The furloughs declared earlier this month are expected to save more than one billion dollars over the next year in California.

On Wednesday, authorities shut down most of the operations of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the largest court system in the country with approximately 100,000 people passing through its 600 courtrooms every day.

Presiding Judge Charles McCoy said he was forced to take the step in anticipation of a 138-million-dollar funding shortfall for the fiscal year that began this month.

"That is very significant," McCoy told the Los Angeles Times. "But I am most worried about what we are going to have to do next, because it is not going to get better."

McCoy said reducing the number of workdays would only save about 18 million dollars a year. The judge is considering permanently shutting down some courtrooms or entire courthouses, according to the newspaper.

Schwarzenegger on July 1 declared a "fiscal emergency" for the state, beset by a budget deficit of 2.8 billion dollars at the time, a figure that could jump to 6.5 billion in September.

California, which is home to 37 million inhabitants, would be the world's seventh-largest economy if compared to other countries
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Max Keiser Part 2

Precious Metal SILVER the next big BOOM

So how much silver was mined? Well, the commoditynewscenter.com notes that "According to the US Geological Survey, about 672m ounces of silver was mined in 2008. And with an average silver price of $14.94 per ounce, if all mined silver was sold at spot, the entire supply chain would generate revenues of only about $10 billion.

(snippet)
Addison Wiggin of Agora Financial's 5 Minute Forecast does not actually come out and say, "It's weird!" or that I am, for once, making sense or how he can't understand why everyone hates me, but he does say that "there are only 22 pure silver mines around the world. For 15 years straight, they've fallen short of meeting total silver demand." Wow!

In fact, "in the last two years alone, they were off by nearly 76 million ounces"!

And since this is after decades of dis-hoarding of strategic stockpiles, the result is that "Today, most of the US silver stockpile is gone," and whereas "the world once had about 2.2 billion ounces of silver above ground," now there are "only about 300 million ounces. In other words, total world silver supply has plummeted by over 86% just in the last few years ... while silver demand has gone UP!"
I know you won't listen to me, since you never have, and all I ever hear is how you are sick of hearing me tell you to buy silver and gold, for one reason, protection against the inexorable predations of a ravenous, sick government, and secondly to make money with silver since the supply/demand imbalance is (as we professional economists term it) So Preposterously Out Of Whack (SPOOW), and you are always asking, "If you're so smart, how come you are just a lonely, pathetic little man who locks himself in the closet under the stairs because he is so scared of everything?"

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Glenn Beck explaining the Goldman Sachs crime

Arm Yourself-Look What's Coming to a State Near You

Low-priority crimes like breaking and entering might not be prosecuted and the conviction rates will continue to decline if the proposed budget for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office is approved, Prosecutor Kym Worthy told commissioners this morning.

“We can’t even cover our courtrooms anymore,” Worthy said in vehemently disagreeing with the $28-million general fund budget proposed for the prosecutor’s office by Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano. “At some point, if the budget continues to be cut, we’re going to have to start making decisions about what crimes we prosecute.”

The county is facing a $105-million deficit in its 2009-10 budget and has told department heads that 20% has to be cut from the overall budget. The 8% proposed cut to the prosecutor’s office would translate into 54 fewer employees and $6 million less than the prosecutor has asked for the upcoming fiscal year.

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Note: 2008 Crime Stat:
Detroit: The city experienced a decrease in all categories of crime but for burglary (8015 to 8493).

Missouri Car Dealer Offers Free AK-47 With New Truck
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Stats coming in Worldwide: No Recovery-Getting Worse

Friday, July 17 14:25:51
The slump in retail sales will force up to 25,000 more workers on to the dole queues this year, according to Retail Ireland, the IBEC group that represents the Irish retail sector. It projected that consumer spending will have fallen by about 9pc in 2009. "This is due to the impact of the two budgets, cross-border shopping and the recession generally," it said.
Lobby groups and economists today expressed concern and disappointment at the latest retail sales figures from the CSO.
The latest retail sales figures for May show a 1.2pc fall from April, which translated into an annual decline of 15.4pc in volume terms. While this represents a substantial improvement in the average decline of 21pc in the year to April, it is driven by the less negative rate of decline in car sales and masks a disappointing deterioration in core retail sales (i.e. excluding cars) in recent months, said Lynsey Clemenger, an economist with Ulster Bank.
She said the latest data points to "ongoing weakness rather than previously hoped-for stabilisation".

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July 17 (Bloomberg) -- China’s government failed to sell as much debt as it planned for the third time in two weeks on speculation the central bank will push up money-market rates to prevent bubbles in stock and property prices.

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California unemployment rate rises to 11.6%
The state lost 66,500 jobs in June and has shed 766,300 jobs in the last year.
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Max Keiser: Furious with Goldman Sachs

There is no Economy left to Recover

There is no economy left to recover. The US manufacturing economy was lost to offshoring and free trade ideology. It was replaced by a mythical "New Economy."

The "New Economy" was based on services. Its artificial life was fed by the Federal Reserve's artificially low interest rates, which produced a real estate bubble, and by "free market" financial deregulation, which unleashed financial gangsters to new heights of debt leverage and fraudulent financial products.

The real economy was traded away for a make-believe economy. When the make-believe economy collapsed, Americans' wealth in their real estate, pensions, and savings collapsed dramatically while their jobs disappeared.

The debt economy caused Americans to leverage their assets. They refinanced their homes and spent the equity. They maxed out numerous credit cards. They worked as many jobs as they could find. Debt expansion and multiple family incomes kept the economy going.

And now suddenly Americans can't borrow in order to spend. They are over their heads in debt. Jobs are disappearing. America's consumer economy, approximately 70% of GDP, is dead. Those Americans who still have jobs are saving against the prospect of job loss. Millions are homeless. Some have moved in with family and friends; others are living in tent cities.

Meanwhile the US government's budget deficit has jumped from $455 billion in 2008 to $2,000 billion this year, with another $2,000 billion on the books for 2010. And President Obama has intensified America's expensive war of aggression in Afghanistan and initiated a new war in Pakistan.

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This isn't a Recession, This is Collapse

(snippet)
Frankly, unless Washington prints money and bails out every state that needs capital, including California, federal power will decline amidst this severe economic recession, and the process of a soft American devolution will begin. If you think this idea is outrageous, then you’ve still not come to terms with a core reality of our current situation: the structure of this financial crisis is wholly different than any in our post-war era. This isn’t a recession. This is collapse.
In Recession vs. Collapse published in March, this blog explained that in a normal recession existing savings are used to support government debt issuance and that those who remain employed increase their savings to also support government debt issuance.
Neither phenomenon is at work today. Yes, the savings rate has soared in the US. But this has not resulted in any actual accrued savings. Because private sector debt came to define the internal structure of the US system, savings currently is little more than debt service. Also, bank purchases of US Treasuries are really just a result of the circularity of monetization. It’s just money from the FED being recycled into Treasuries. There is no privately driven growth of bank deposits, in the aggregate. Americans as a class are broke. What the savings rate more accurately measures is a collapse of consumer spending.
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Mass exodus out of NY? Terrifying 57% Tax Hike Looming

Congressional plans to fund a massive health-care overhaul could have a job-killing effect on New York, creating a tax rate of nearly 60 percent for the state's top earners and possibly pressuring small-business owners to shed workers.

New York's top income bracket could reach as high as 57 percent -- rates not seen in three decades -- to pay for the massive health coverage proposed by House Democrats this week.
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Connecticut on the brink of collapse

Cash-poor Connecticut may sell land, buildings
Wed, Jul 15 19:03 PM EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Connecticut, one of a handful of states that missed its budget deadline, on Wednesday began drawing up a list of assets to sell, from buildings to a seaside site, to help close a two-year $8 billion deficit.

Though Republican Governor Jodi Rell and Democratic lawmakers agreed not to disclose their budget talks after she vetoed their proposal, Rell in a statement said "the concept of raising revenue from the sale of state assets has been embraced by all those involved in negotiations."

The Democrats wanted to raise $112 million by selling state property. Rell, who faulted them for not saying what should be sold, has now told all state agencies to use their creativity to find candidates, including capital equipment.

"We must consider parting with those parcels or buildings that we would not have considered in the 'ordinary' course of business or that we would like to hold onto because of stunning natural settings, such as the Seaside property in Waterford," she said.

Connecticut's properties include the Seaside Regional Center in Waterford and a former tuberculosis sanitorium. Rell's spokesman could not immediately say if that was the site that might be sold. Shore properties can still command handsome prices though values have fallen during the recession.

Next week, Democrats should reconvene to consider overturning Rell's vetoes. She also sent them her budget director's forecast that 14 of the bills she vetoed would cost the state $1.5 billion a year.

Her list included a green buildings tax credit, a way to help municipal, nonprofit and small business employees self-insure health care via the state health plan, and creating an authority, run by an appointed individual, to "take over health care policy and decision-making."

(Reporting by Joan Gralla; Editing by Diane Craft)

The US Is Insolvent: Proof

Facts: The US must sell over 2 trillion in debt. Any ideas? (Besides keep printing money.)

Sprott June 2009

88% of UK Pension Funds in the RED-US Pension Funds sue..

The scale of the pensions crisis was laid bare yesterday as figures showed the deficit in company schemes had soared above £200billion. A staggering 88 per cent of the country's 7,400 defined-benefit pension schemes face a shortfall amid pressure from falling stocks and people living longer. In June 2007, pension funds were registering a surplus of more than £100billion. A year later this had turned into a deficit of £13billion. But yesterday's figures from industry safety net the Pension Protection Fund showed the shortfall between assets and liabilities in the 7,400 plans rocketed to £200.1billion at the end of June.

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U.S. pension fund sues Moody's, S&P, Fitch

NEW YORK, July 15 (Reuters) - Calpers, the biggest U.S. public pension fund, has sued the three largest U.S. credit rating agencies for giving perfect grades to securities that later suffered huge subprime mortgage losses.

Hedge Fund Buys 5 BILLION in Gold Bullion

Harry Dents Forecast: Depression 2010-2011

Stock Market will retrace 50%. Sell your Real Estate NOW! New wave of collapse will come in the fall. Interest rates will go up. No Recovery. Prepare for a depression.

Jobless benefits run out in record numbers

With the recession midway through its second year, the number of people running out of jobless benefits has reached a record high.

Just as first-time claims for unemployment insurance surged in the sour economy, final payments – made when laid-off workers have exhausted their initial benefits and all extensions – are climbing, with Mecklenburg County numbers more than double from a year ago.
As a result, more people are seeking help from already strained assistance agencies and trying to find creative ways to generate income, from babysitting to braiding hair to refinancing loans to taking on roommates.
(snippet)
The current recession, however, is the worst since at least the early 1980s and possibly the Great Depression, economists say. That severity plus the Charlotte region's robust population growth in recent years have resulted in the record number of people running out of benefits.

The next several weeks probably won't bring much relief. Although many economists say layoffs have slowed, most companies haven't resumed hiring. Job seekers also compete in a larger labor pool during the summer, when students, teachers and new graduates search for work.

Given that outlook, even people who haven't yet exhausted jobless benefits are searching for other sources of income.
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26% Of Mortgage Defaults have the ability to make the payments

Reporting from Washington -- Would you, under any circumstances, default on your home mortgage, even if you could afford to make the monthly payments?

That's a trickier question than you might assume, according to new research from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

The study found that 26% of the record numbers of home mortgage defaults across the country are "strategic" -- that is, calculated economic decisions to bail out of loans by owners who actually have the money to make the payments but can't handle the negative equity they're carrying caused by local property value declines.

Nationwide, according to data from Zillow.com, 22% of all homeowners were underwater, with mortgage debts that exceeded their home values, in the first quarter of 2009.

In some parts of California and Nevada, more than half of all households have negative equity. In a few localities, the size of the equity deficit is staggering: In the Salinas, Calif., metropolitan area, for example, the median equity for people who bought their homes in 2006, near the peak of the boom, is now a negative $214,305, according to the study.

When researchers questioned two nationally representative statistical samples of households about strategic defaults, they found that moral and social beliefs play a constraining role, but negative equity and the frequency of defaults in local ZIP Codes have significant contrary effects.
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Does Goldman Sachs Run the Government?

Everyone agrees that Goldman Sachs pretty much runs the government's economic and financial agencies.

As the New York Times explained last October in a must-read 4 page article, the presence of Goldman Sachs alumni in virtually all of the top government financial posts is so great that their team is dubbed "Government Sachs":

Indeed, Goldman’s presence in the [Treasury] department and around the federal response to the financial crisis is so ubiquitous that other bankers and competitors have given the star-studded firm a new nickname: Government Sachs.

The Times points out that Goldman alums include:

* Former treasury secretary Hank Paulson

* Paulson's bailout chief Neel Kashkari

* Interim Treasury investment officer Reuben Jeffrey

* Key Treasury players Dan Jester, Steve Shafran, Edward C. Forst, and Robert K. Steel

* Key New York Federal Reserve players Stephen Friedman (head of the New York Fed board of governors, who sat on Goldman's board and owned a substantial stake in Goldman while he was making official decisions - and see this), William C. Dudley (head of the New York Fed's unit that buys and sells government securities), and E. Gerald Corrigan (charged with convening a group to analyze risk on Wall Street)

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