U.S. Move to Give Egypt $450 Million in Aid Meets Resistance

The Obama administration notified Congress on Friday that it would provide Egypt’s new government an emergency cash infusion of $450 million, but the aid immediately encountered resistance from a prominent lawmaker wary of foreign aid and Egypt’s new course under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood.

 The aid is part of the $1 billion in assistance that the Obama administration has pledged to Egypt to bolster its transition to democracy after the overthrow last year of the former president, Hosni Mubarak. Its fate, however, was clouded by concerns over the new government’s policies and, more recently, the protests that damaged the American Embassy in Cairo.

The United States Agency for International Development notified Congress of the cash infusion on Friday morning during the pre-election recess, promptly igniting a smoldering debate over foreign aid and the administration’s handling of crises in the Islamic world.

An influential Republican lawmaker, Representative Kay Granger of Texas, immediately announced that she would use her position as chairwoman of the House appropriations subcommittee overseeing foreign aid to block the distribution of the money. She said the American relationship with Egypt “has never been under more scrutiny” than it is in the wake of the election of President Mohamed Morsi, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Read more....

The Plight of Young, Black Men Is Worse Than You Think

The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any wealthy nation, with about 2.3 million people behind bars at any given moment. (That’s 730 out of 100,000, vs. just 154 for England and Wales.) There are more people in U.S. prisons than are in the country’s active-duty military. That much is well known. What’s less known is that people who are incarcerated are excluded from most surveys by U.S. statistical agencies. Since young, black men are disproportionately likely to be in jail or prison, the exclusion of penal institutions from the statistics makes the jobs situation of young, black men look better than it really is.

That’s the point of a new book, Invisible Men: Mass Incarceration and the Myth of Black Progress, by Becky Pettit, a professor of sociology at the University of Washington. Pettit spoke on Thursday in a telephone press conference.

On the day Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009, Pettit said, “there was hope that perhaps the U.S. was becoming a post-racial society.” But it wasn’t true then, and it’s not true now. The gap between blacks and whites remains wide in employment, income, wealth, and health. And as Bloomberg’s David J. Lynch reported earlier this month: “The nation’s first African-American president hasn’t done much for African-Americans.”

The unemployment rate and the employment-to-population ratio reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics are based on a survey of households—people “who are not inmates of institutions (for example, penal and mental facilities and homes for the aged) and who are not on active duty in the Armed Forces.” Read more....

Confusing Money for Value

You should have seen us when we wore Rolexes, big diamonds and the latest fashions.  You should have seen our 3000 sq. ft. house that required a full-time housekeeper and gardeners, not to mention the electric, phone and water bills.  You should have seen my long, weekly manicured fingernails and perfectly coiffed hair.  You should have seen the Cadillacs we drove.   It was the image of monetary wealth – unfortunately, all too often confused with real value.

You wouldn’t have known we were people who could be happy in a 1 bedroom cinderblock house in which we must keep a fire going in order to stay warm.  That is, of course, unless you chose to look under the surface.  All that opulence never impressed us, even though it was never bought on credit but with money we had worked our buns off to make.  It was just a tool we used to get ourselves to our goal – a self-sufficient, off-grid survivalist retreat.

Our first house in the wilderness was a 16′ by 32′ plywood shack, finished only well enough to be livable, not aesthetically pleasing.  It didn’t take much of our funds and we chose not to put a lot of money into it at the time.  We knew we were going to build another someday (it happened a mere 2 years later).  But that plywood shack had VALUE.  It kept us warm and protected from the weather and gave us the freedom to finish other projects.

Many people came for a visit to our Shangri-la, to decide if the off-grid life was for them.  Many of them looked at our house and left in terror.  They thought we were just some down-and-out, poor-trash types who were living in the best place they could afford, never having had the experience of living what they understood to be “the good life”.  What they didn’t know and what they couldn’t understand  was that we had lived their ideal of “the good life”, but we were not so taken in by it that we couldn’t shed it for a much better way of life – one that was based on what you could do or what you could figure out, rather than what you could buy.  You see, if you always have to buy what you need, you are trapped in the rat race, always having to make more money as the prices go up and up for that which you are used to having.  So does the $6 you pay for a loaf of bread today have any more VALUE than the $3 you used to pay for that same loaf of bread?  Does your McMansion keep the rain out any better than a tent? Read more....

TRUE CONFESSION: I'm Sick Of My Unemployed Husband

People have a lot of opinions about money.

In our “Money Mic” series, we hand over the podium to someone with a strong opinion on a financial topic. These are their views, not ours, but we welcome your responses.

Today, one woman discusses her deep misgivings about her marriage, why she resents being the sole breadwinner and how her dynamic with her husband affects their kids.

Money is emotional and sensitive, so please respect that each person makes individual choices. For things you can do in a similar situation to strengthen your relationships and talk about money, keep reading.

I can’t even remember when my husband stopped working.

And frankly, I don’t have time to think about it, between my full-time job and my fledgling business, volunteering at an after-school program to help teenagers prepare for the professional world and mothering two children.

But when I do think about it–when I think about all the times I come home to see evidence of his entire day’s activities cluttering the coffee table, or when I have to take our shared car to work and strand him at home because he doesn’t feel like getting up to drive me–I’m angry.

Why should he get everything, when I do everything? Read more....

30 Examples of Why America Is No Longer a Free Country

Nanny state is no longer on steroids, it has turned into the Incredible Hulk

From people being harassed for paying by cash or having a food garden, to Americans being arrested for letting their children play outside – innumerable examples over the past few months alone illustrate that the United States is no longer a free country.

The nanny state is no longer just on steroids, it has turned into the Incredible Hulk as collectivism, pernicious bureaucracy, regulation, mass surveillance and outright tyranny runs wild across the country.

Here are just a selection of stories from scores of recent examples illustrating how America is ‘land of the Free, home of the brave’ no more.

- Parents across the country are being arrested for letting their children play outside. A stay at home mom in Texas was held in jail for 18 hours for allowing her children to ride on scooters while she was watching them from her home. A mother in Virginia was also harassed by social services and police for the egregious crime of allowing their children to play outside in another example of how the nanny state is running wild in America.

- The war on lemonade stands, traditionally viewed as a quaint example of America’s entrepreneurial spirit, has intensified in recent months with cops slapping parents with fines for letting their kids run “unlicensed” lemonade stands in three separate incidents over the last year alone. A map of restrictions on child-run concession stands illustrates how there have been dozens of examples of police interference across the country. Read more....

WATCH: “Keep Obama In President, You Know! He Gave Us a Phone! Food Stamps, Social Security…”

    The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.

    Margaret Thatcher
    UK Prime Minister (1979-1990)

We’re living in two Americas.

One understands that our economic situation, debt levels and social welfare expenditures are untenable.

And the other believes that if they can just vote the right people into office they won’t ever have to work or worry again. They are under the assumption that their phone bill, food, electricity, rent, medical bills and retirements will be taken care of from cradle to grave. In their perfect world, the government creates the wealth and redistributes that wealth to everyone. Where this wealth and money comes from is anybody’s guess.

If you’re part of the former, then the following video recorded at a Mitt Romney rally near Cleveland, Ohio will make you absolutely sick… Read more....

Government Assistance Doesn’t Cut It Anymore: Phoenix Mayor Loses 4 Pounds In One Week On “Food Stamp Budget”

If you’re dependent on the government to support your weekly sustenance, the money you receive is no longer sufficient to maintain a healthy and nutritious diet – so says Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton:

    Last week, Stanton, a Democrat, took part in a community challenge to live on a food stamp budget – just $4.16 to buy food per day, or about $29 per week for one person.

    Stanton said he was barely able to meet nutritional needs and lost four pounds, according to Fox 10 News Phoenix. He skipped meals and relied on ramen noodles, pasta and coffee, according to KTAR.

    “I’m facing a long, hungry day and an even longer night getting dinner on the table, which requires making EVERYTHING from scratch on this budget,” Stanton wrote on Facebook. “It’s only for a week, so I’ve got a decent attitude. If I were doing this with no end in sight, I probably wouldn’t be so pleasant.”

    Stanton concluded on Facebook at the end of the challenge: “The best ‘program’ for any struggling family is a job that pays a living wage.”

    Source: Huff Post

According to Stanton, he lost four pounds in a single week on his $29 per week food budget: Read more...

Security State: TSA “Freeze” Training Caught on Tape

“Obedience training” is part of TSA’s Code Bravo security drill:

The TSA’s bizarre new policy where it orders travelers who have already passed security to “freeze” on command has been caught on camera, with the clip illustrating once more how the federal agency has implemented a series of ludicrous policies that seemingly have no other purpose than to act as an obedience test for the traveling public.

The video shows the final 24 seconds of a 2 minute period during which travelers were ordered to “freeze” by TSA workers and were not allowed to move.

One TSA screener is heard to say, “stay right where you are,” at a man who is walking through the airport, as the other static travelers look on in bewilderment.

According to the You Tube user responsible for uploading the clip, “This video was shot within the “secure” area of the terminal, BEYOND the security gate.”

“Note that the TSA “guard” is offering no explanation, only giving harsh threats and orders to stay still. Note that there was NO event or threat taking place of any kind,” he adds.

As we have previously highlighted, the “freeze” policy, which has been experienced by numerous travelers across the country, is known as Code Bravo Sierra or simply Code Bravo by the TSA. Read more...

Netanyahu to set "clear red line" for Iran in U.N. speech

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will set out, in his speech at the United Nations on Thursday, an ultimatum for Iran to halt its disputed nuclear drive or risk coming under military attack, an Israeli official said.

Netanyahu faces the world body after U.S. President Barack Obama disappointed some Israelis, in his own address to the annual assembly, by not calling for a deadline to be imposed on Tehran - though he did say time for diplomacy "is not unlimited".

Israel sees a mortal threat in a nuclear-armed Iran and has long threatened to strike its arch-foe pre-emptively, agitating war-wary world powers as they pursue sanctions and negotiations.

Complicating Netanyahu's strategy have been his testy relations with Obama as a U.S. election looms, and the reluctance of many Israelis to trigger a conflict with Iran, which denies that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons and has pledged wide-ranging retaliation if attacked.

"The prime minister will set a clear red line in his speech that will not contradict Obama's remarks. Obama said Iran won't have nuclear weapons. The prime minister will clarify the way in which Iran won't have nuclear arms," a senior Israeli official said en route to New York, without elaborating.

Though he has not previously detailed when Israel might be willing to go to war, Netanyahu has said Iran could have enough low-enriched uranium by early 2013 to refine to a high level of fissile purity for a first nuclear device. Read more....

10 Quotes From Financial Experts About The Effect That QE3 Will Have On Gold And Silver

Do you want to know what QE3 is going to do to the price of gold and the price of silver?  Well, you can read what the financial experts are saying below, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out what is likely to happen.  During QE3, the Federal Reserve will be introducing 40 billion new dollars that have been created out of nothing into the financial system each month.  So there will be more dollars chasing roughly the same number of goods and services, and that means that more inflation is on the way.  In an inflationary environment, investors tend to flock to hard assets such as gold and silver.  And it is important to remember that a lot of the money from QE1 and QE2 ended up pumping up the prices of various financial assets. 

This included commodities such as gold and silver.  The same thing is likely to happen again with QE3.  In addition, investors now have an expectation that the Fed will continue printing money for the foreseeable future and that the U.S. dollar is going to steadily decline, and that expectation will also likely give further momentum to the upward movement of gold and silver.  Of course when it comes to investing, there is never a "sure thing" and as the global financial system falls apart in the coming years we are likely to see wild swings in the financial markets.  So there is definitely an opportunity when it comes to gold and silver, but anyone that wants to invest in gold and silver needs to be ready for a wild ride. Read more....

Max Velocity: Moving by Vehicle in High Threat Environments

The intent of this article is to act as an introduction with some thoughts and primers for moving your family or group in high threat environments. It is not intended to give all the answers and that would be beyond the scope of this short piece. The type of environment envisioned is a post-collapse situation where there has been a breakdown in law and order. To clarify, this article is not concerned with the sort of ‘bug-out’ movement that families may conduct in response to a localized natural disaster, where you have to get in your car with some basic equipment and move out of the impacted area. Rather, this is directed at those who find they have to move locations after a significant societal collapse has happened.

As background it is clear that to read the conventional prepper wisdom to survive any coming apocalypse you need to be in a fortified self-sustaining retreat somewhere out in the boonies, with three years of food in the basement and the ability to grow food plus animals. This is the gold standard; you will be really well positioned if that is where you are with your preparations. The reality for many is that they simply do not have that. For whatever reason, they may be in an urban or suburban environment. They may have nowhere else to realistically ‘bug out’ to. They may have a goal to achieve the retreat, but not be there yet, or have bug out land that is fairly basic and requires them to move to it following a collapse. So there may be a reality gap between those that have achieved the gold standard of location and preparations, and those that are not there yet. What I am really concerned about here is a collapse of society, the veritable ‘TEOTWAWKI’, where it all goes to chaos, the ‘SHTF’. For most of us who are not at the ‘gold standard’, we will be left to survive where we are, in our suburban homes or whatever applies to you. Now, it is true that some will be better set up than others. Reasons include location, such as an inner city one bedroom apartment versus a big house on several acres in a sub-division, or the amount of preps that you have: food supplies etc. Read more....

Founders – In the Near Future the Entire Social, Political, and Economic Infrastructure of America Has Collapsed

Sometime in the near future the world as we know it will change drastically. The financial and economic systems we have come to depend on will finally buckle, and when they do, those things that we take for granted today – our ability to conveniently engage in commerce, to depend on police and medical responders to be there in an emergency, and even turning on our lights at night – will become a thing of the past.

When this ‘crunch’ happens, those who are unprepared for it are destined to suffer the worst of what mankind has to offer. There will be no food, no fuel, no ease of travel and no rule of law.

This worst case scenario is the background story of the trilogy introduced by Survival Blog author James Rawles.

In his first book, Patriots, Rawles introduced to a tight-knit group of individuals who had for years taken steps to prepare for just such a scenario, and when the crunch came they were ready for it. His second novel, Survivors, which took place during the same ‘event’ followed a variety of characters in the United States and abroad as they struggled to come to terms with what had happened and the challenges they faced as crime rose exponentially and hordes of gangs overtook villages and towns in an effort to acquire critical resources.

The long-awaited final book of the series, Founders, has now become available and promises to be just as exciting and informative as the first two. Read more......

Paul Ryan: “Do You Want Barack Obama To Be Reelected? Then Don’t Vote For Ron Paul”

It took a while for the unspoken truth to be finally spoken, but sooner or later, it always is. Via The Hill:

    Paul Ryan argued Monday that a vote for a third-party candidate would likely help President Obama win reelection.

    Ryan was asked why voters should not vote for Ron Paul. The Republican vice presidential candidate responded that a vote for Paul, who ran for the 2012 GOP nomination, would effectively split the vote in a way that helps Obama.

    “Do you want Barack Obama to be reelected? Then don’t vote for Ron Paul,” Ryan said during a campaign speech in Lima, Ohio, on Monday.

    Ryan went on to say that Paul was a good friend. Read more....

Shade: Key Players Have Been Identified, Black Operations Will Be Exposed

They’ve poisoned our water supplies with hundreds of chemicals, genetically modified our food without thought of long-term ramifications, forced us to inject ourselves and our children with contaminated medications, and have unrelentingly sprayed our skies with deadly toxins.

Is it so hard to believe that a massive depopulation effort is now underway?

For hundreds of years an elite group of oligarchs have ruled the land, fueled by a legacy of sex, money, power and greed…

…in the last 60 years their power has become more consolidated as they have become more organized.

Their own white papers and other documents show the diabolic plans they have in store for the population. Read more....

Boomerang: Over 20 Million Adults Now Living With Their Parents; Massive Increase Since 2007

As the economic crisis deepens, more jobs are vaporized, millions lose their unemployment benefits, and prices for essentials goods continue to rise, many Americans are left with no choice but to move back in with mom and dad.

It’s being called the Boomerang effect, and since the onset of recession in 2007 the trend has been growing at an alarming rate:

The number of 26-year-olds living with parents has jumped almost 46 percent since 2007, according to Census Bureau data compiled by the University of Minnesota Population Center. Last year, the number of 18- to 30-year-olds living with their parents grew to 20.7 million, a 3.9 percent gain from 2010.

The figures underscore the difficulty that millions of young people have had in finding jobs and starting careers in the U.S. following the longest recession since the Great Depression. About a quarter of American adults between the ages of 18 and 30 now live with parents, while intergenerational households have reached the highest level in more than 50 years.

“There’s been a shift in attitude,” said Kate Brooks, the career services director at the University of Texas College of Liberal Arts. “Parents are more accepting; some welcome it.” Read more....

How a Teacher Made $1 Million Selling Lesson Plans

Deanna Jump is not a trust fund baby. She never married into money and she has never won the lottery. But in the past year-and-a-half, the 43-year-old kindergarten teacher in Warner Robins, Ga., has earned more than $1 million. Her unlikely strategy: selling catchy kindergarten lesson plans to other teachers.

Jump is just one of some 15,000 teachers currently marketing their original classroom materials through the online marketplace, TeachersPayTeachers (TPT). Since signing on to the site, she has created 93 separate teaching units and sold 161,000 copies for about $8 a pop. “My units usually cover about two weeks’ worth of material,” she says. “So if you want to teach about dinosaurs, you’d buy my dinosaur unit, and it has everything you need from language arts, math, science experiments, and a list of books you can use as resources. So once you print out the unit, you just have to add a few books to read aloud to your class, and everything else is there, ready to go for you.”

To be fair, no one else on TPT has been as wildly successful as Jump, but at least two other teachers have earned $300,000, and 23 others have earned over $100,000, according to site founder Paul Edelman. “Of the 15,000 teachers who are contributing, about 10,000 make money in any given quarter,” he adds.

Edelman, a former New York middle school English teacher, launched TPT in 2006 after sinking grueling hours into planning his own classes. “Every night, I would spend two or three hours, at least—and then Sundays I would spend all day and all night preparing and correcting papers,” he says. To get ahead, Edelman and his colleagues swapped ideas and lesson plans. They also perused online sites for helpful resources, but found only sub-par, outdated materials. Read more....

In New York, defiant Ahmadinejad says Israel will be “eliminated”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday Israel has no roots in the Middle East and would be "eliminated," ignoring a U.N. warning to avoid incendiary rhetoric ahead of the annual General Assembly session.

Ahmadinejad also said he did not take seriously the threat that Israel could launch a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, denied sending arms to Syria, and alluded to Iran's threats to the life of British author Salman Rushdie.

The United States quickly dismissed the Iranian president's comments as "disgusting, offensive and outrageous."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hinted Israel could strike Iran's nuclear sites and criticized U.S. President Barack Obama's position that sanctions and diplomacy should be given more time to stop Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Iran denies it is seeking nuclear arms and says its atomic work is peaceful and aimed at generating electricity.

"Fundamentally we do not take seriously the threats of the Zionists," Ahmadinejad, in New York for this week's U.N. General Assembly, told reporters. "We have all the defensive means at our disposal and we are ready to defend ourselves."

Ahmadinejad is due to speak at the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met Ahmadinejad on Sunday and warned him of the dangers of incendiary rhetoric in the Middle East. Read more.....

President Obama Schedules Key Meeting During United Nations Summit… With Whoopi Goldberg

While President Ahmadinejad threatens to eliminate Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to take unilateral actions against Iranian nuclear facilities, the Chinese deploy a fleet of ships to meet Japan head on in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, protests erupt across the middle east on the heels of the killing of an American ambassador, tens of thousands of people lose their lives in uprisings in Syria, and the global economy teeters on the edge of collapse, the leader of the free world, our President, has refused to meet with any world leaders during the United Nations summit being held in New York this week.

These are, after all, just “bumps in the road.” Nothing but “noise.”

President Obama has chosen instead to meet with Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters, Joy Behar and the rest of the cast at morning talk show The View: Read more....

Forget Free Speech Zones: “Take Him to That Pen Over There”

Make no mistake. We are living in an authoritarian police state.

Consider how local law enforcement agencies around the country respond when a group of individuals assembles to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Whether they’re protesting the abdication of individual rights at a Tea Party gathering or the corruption of Wall Street elites at Occupy Protests, the right of the people to assemble is no longer viewed as a Constitutional protection, but rather, a nuisance akin to a swine stampede.

Whether you agree with those who protest one abuse or another, the fact is that if they have the authority to do it to those with ideologies opposed to yours, they can (and will) also do it to you.

In New York this week disillusioned Americans from all walks of like gathered for another year of protests against the corruption on Wall Street.

They were met with fierce resistance from the New York Police Department and were indiscriminately herded into detention cells eloquently described by one  of New York’s finest as “pens,” such as those reserved for livestock: Read more.....

America's Deadliest And Poorest City Set To Disband Its Entire Police Force Over Budget Crisis

While the stock market in the US continues to surge (if not so much in China where the composite is back to 2009 lows) as the relentless liquidity tsunami makes its way into stocks, and other Fed frontrunning instruments, and only there, reality for everyone else refuses to wait. Last week we saw reality striking in Greece, where a section of Athens literally shut down after it ran out of all cash. Today, reality comes to the US, and specifically its poorest city, Camden, which is a twofer, doubling down also as America's deadliest city. It turns out Camden is about to become even deadliest-er, as its police force is set to be disbanded following a budget crisis in this effectively insolvent city.

AP reports:

    This city, long among the nation's poorest and most crime-ridden, is on the verge of dismantling its police department and starting anew with a force run by the county government.

         City officials are making the move to increase the number of officers while keeping the cost the same by averting rules negotiated with a union that city officials have seen as unwilling to compromise.

        Unless the union - which is skeptical of the stated motivations for the change - reaches a deal with the county, no more than 49 per cent of the city's current officers could join the new force and those that do will get pay cuts.

        John Wilson, a 57-year-old unemployed baker who's lived in the city his whole life, thinks it's worth a try. Read more....

China: For Many Expats, It's Not Worth It

Stay or go? That question has erupted in a public way among China’s large population of expatriate businessmen, entrepreneurs, journalists, and academics, who the public security bureau says number 220,000.

The debate started with an essay, “You’ll Never Be Chinese: It Is Time to Leave the Country I Loved,” by former magazine publisher Mark Kitto, a British 16-year resident of China. After his English-language magazine was seized by the government, Kitto retreated to Moganshan mountain outside Shanghai, where he and his Chinese wife have run a restaurant and guesthouse business for the last seven years. “Don’t you think,” asked Kitto in the August edition of Britain’s Prospect, “with all the growth and infrastructure, the material wealth, let alone saving the world like some kind of financial whiz James Bond, that China would be a happier and healthier country? I don’t think it is.” A second piece, titled “Why I’m Leaving China,” published July 25 by American tech writer and filmmaker Charlie Custer on his popular ChinaGeeks blog, made many of the same points.

The articles, widely e-mailed among expatriates, are being discussed on English and Chinese websites. “If you haven’t read Mark Kitto’s article on why he’s leaving China, do so now,” wrote Richard Burger, who has lived in Beijing for nearly four years, on his popular blog The Peking Duck, on Aug. 14. “There is talk of the U.S. ‘falling off a financial cliff,’ but right now I think China is closer to the edge of that cliff, and that it’s also a steeper cliff than ours.” The Chinese have reacted, too. In response to Custer’s piece, one outraged Chinese wrote on July 30: “Well, at first remember this, nobody forced you to come to China, [neither] your parents nor your God. Secondly, don’t try to change China when you are not a citizen of China. Thirdly and last, don’t spit on others when you leave. Thank you, have a nice flight, and please don’t come back!” Read more....

Alternatives to a Bugout Location – What You Should Conside

Every person will face an ugly new reality when life as we know it vanishes. It’s coming. Soon. It might be a slow crawl decline or a rapid descent into nightmarish conditions. Various scenarios now flit threateningly across the horizon. If we’re brave enough to peer into the abyss, we can see some of these events bordering on fruition. Most are unnerving; some will be paralyzing. Regardless of the fright factor, we must examine individually how to handle these looming crises. When they strike, people without a plan in place, will die.

So what’s lurking about?

GRID DOWN

What threatens us now is nothing we’ve ever experienced. Life would change unspeakably from a mega-disaster dwarfing Hurricane Katrina. Catastrophic grid failure from EMPs or the Sun throwing a massive CME at Earth would instantly hurl much of the globe into 3rd world conditions. There is precedence.

October 2003 the Sun shot off a life-withering X45 mega-flare. This was more than twice as big as any previous event. The only thing that saved us from a grid-down catastrophe was this raging storm erupting away from Earth. Had this been Earth-directed, you would not be reading this article now. Life would have changed cataclysmically. Read more.....

Education After the Collapse: School When There Is No Classroom

That controversial “Piss Christ” artwork is coming to New York City again, and GOP Congressman Michael Grimm isn’t happy about it. The work in question is a photo of a crucifix placed in the urine of artist Andres Serrano and has long been a magnet for the ire of conservative pols. Accordingly, Mr. Grimm released a four paragraph statement this afternoon where he accused the Obama administration of hypocrisy due for making efforts to quell the deadly Islamic protests abroad by criticizing a video that mocked Muhammad while remaining silent on Mr. Serrano’s photo.

“The Obama administration’s hypocrisy and utter lack of respect for the religious beliefs of Americans has reached an all-time high,” Mr. Grimm explained. “Perhaps they’ve forgotten the controversy that surrounded this deplorable piece depicting a crucifix submerged in the artist’s urine.”

View Mr. Grimm’s full missive below:

“The Obama administration’s hypocrisy and utter lack of respect for the religious beliefs of Americans has reached an all-time high.  Our own government has just launched on-air ads in Pakistan apologizing for the anti-Islam video that has sparked unrest throughout the region.  Earlier, they asked YouTube to take down the trailer to the controversial film, a request which was denied.

“Now as the controversial ‘Piss Christ’ art exhibit makes its return to NYC, the administration remains silent.  Perhaps they’ve forgotten the controversy that surrounded this deplorable piece depicting a crucifix submerged in the artist’s urine. It outraged Christians in America and throughout the world as the touring exhibit was met with protests and acts of vandalism. Read more.....

Education After the Collapse: School When There Is No Classroom

For those of us paying attention to what’s happening in the world around us, the coming collapse is a foregone conclusion. All signs point to the inevitable: that an event, or series of events, will soon lead the world into what can be described as a modern period of the Dark Ages. Food will become scarce, violence will thrive, disease will spread, governments will turn on their people, and the fragile social fabric that has maintained relative peace throughout the Western world will  unravel.

As Todd Sepulveda writes in his latest e-book, Education After the Collapse:

    It’s only in the movies, apocalypse. I hope so. But what if?

    It’s not too hard to make the jump from our nice manicured lawns, suburban neighborhoods, Starbucks, 401K lives. On any given day TEOTWAWKI (The end of the world as we know it) can happen. Yes, this happens frequently on an individual or family level: losing a loved one, major medical situation, loss of a job, etc. However, it is not in the scope of this book to talk about those specific situations, or on a small level. The focus of this book is on “the big one.”

    The big one could be a great number of things. A quick search on the internet will bring you a wide variety of scenarios. Or, just take a look at Matthew Stein’s article “Six Trends Converging on Collapse.” (Stein)

    Even if we don’t ever have the “big one,” we are living unsustainable lives in which at some point, it will all come to a head. Read more....

The Economics of Pussy Riot on YouTube

The jailed Russian punk rock group Pussy Riot “did not gain international fame through their musicality per se.”

That insight—none too surprising if you’ve ever clicked on a Pussy Riot video on YouTube—appears in an academic paper (pdf) by three electronic-commerce researchers from the University of Texas, Austin. The 45-page paper, filled with equations and Greek letters, explains how being deliberately offensive can help a video break through the clutter on YouTube, where 72 hours’ worth of video are uploaded every minute. “Most viewers were drawn to [their] videos out of curiosity,” not a desire to watch a high-quality clip, write professor Andrew Whinston and PhD students Liangfei Qiu and Qian Tang.

Not everyone aspires to be Pussy Riot, which staged such provocations as trespassing in a Russian Orthodox Church—a performance that drew two-year prison sentences for three band members. But Whinston, an economist who is a professor of management science and information systems, says it’s important for marketers to understand the various qualities that make one video go viral and another go unnoticed.

Google’s (GOOG) YouTube is quickly becoming not only a major commercial site, but a place where people can launch careers, Whinston notes, pointing to the success of people like Michelle Phan, who posts makeup tips on her own channel on YouTube. Read more.....

Agenda 21: A Sustained Attack On Property Rights

In a video produced by Infowars Nightly News journalists Aaron Dykes and Melissa Melton, University of Texas professor Dean Almy attempts to downplay one of the central tenets of the United Nations’ Agenda 21 – property confiscation.

Almy argues that the word “collective” used by the Agenda 21 crowd is not some sort of Soviet buzzword. It’s simply people getting together to make decisions about their communities.

But despite his attempt to soften the blow of collectivism and make it more palatable and less threatening, Almy told the Texas Tribune in August that the “collective good” should rule over the rights of the individual.
“It’s changing the status quo of how we operate as a country that is developing, and so it’s threatening to some people,” Almy said. “Urban design by its nature is about the collective good, and it isn’t necessarily about the freedom of any one person to do whatever the hell they want.”

Almy’s remark and the entire philosophy of Agenda 21 represent a frontal assault on the very cornerstone of our republic – property rights and the natural right of free individuals to “do whatever the hell they want” so long as they do not infringe on the rights of other individuals.

For the men who framed the Constitution, the right to property was paramount. It was the foundation of all other rights. Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier write in Decision in Philadelphia that the founders had “an almost religious respect” for property, declared “the rights of property were inviolable” and regarded the Constitution as the embodiment of property rights. Read more.....

Is America The Most Materialistic Society In The History Of The World?

When it comes to materialism, has any nation ever surpassed what we are seeing in the United States right now? We define our lives by how much stuff we have, to a large degree our personal and business relationships are defined by how much money we make, and even most of the important dates on our calendar are all about materialism. Just think about it. We throw outrageous birthday parties for our kids and we shower them with gifts. Most of our “holidays” have become highly materialistic, and the biggest holiday of all in our society, Christmas, is an absolute orgy of materialism. We make lists of the “wealthiest Americans” and we glorify their achievements.

We spend most of our time either making money or spending it. Even the phrase “the American Dream” reveals how materialistic we are. When most people are asked what “the American Dream” is, they start talking about a house, a car, vacations, retirement, sending your kids to college, etc. The American Dream has become all about money and stuff. Sadly, no matter how big our homes are and no matter how many shiny new toys we accumulate, we never seem to be happy. We always want more, and we always seem to be willing to go into more debt to get it. We are the most materialistic society in the history of the world, and our endless greed is going to end up swallowing us alive. Read more....

Home Defense: “If You Can’t Protect It, You Don’t Own It”

“If you can’t protect it, you don’t own it;” this popular prepping phrase describes the mentality the unprepared have about you and your preps. I’m not saying it’s fair that people could steal from you, but it’s a reality, and a concern you should not take lightly. The fact is that crime seems to escalate in the aftermath of a disaster; something we have seen with many disasters, and as recently as Hurricane Isaac.

Over the last year, we have discussed how important it is for security measures to be in place especially during and following a wide-spread disaster. In an earlier newsletter written on the subject of external security measures, I wrote, “a ‘bug in’ scenario may be our only choice after a disaster strikes and we must prepare not only for our basic needs, but also for our safety. Since the grid may be down following a disaster, each household should prepare for crime.”

I realize there are some who believe a gun does not belong in the home; and in all honesty, that is your God given choice; be that as it may, if we are talking about protecting ourselves in a short-or long-term disaster, then we have to assume that local emergency responders will not be as readily available and crime could be a threat to our livelihood and well-being. If that is the case, then a firearm should be as much a part of your preparedness plan as having the coveted beans and Band-Aids. I don’t know about you, but if someone kicked in my door, I know they aren’t looking for a cup of sugar. Their motivation is purely to take something that you have or cause harm to you or a family member, and you must assume the worst. Trying to communicate with him or her will not do the trick if they are inside your home. On the other hand, a rifle pointed directly at the intruder’s chest, however, would make a very clear statement, wouldn’t it? Read more.....

What Mitt Romney Got Wrong About the 47 Percent

Mitt Romney’s videotaped remark to wealthy supporters that 47 percent of Americans “believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name it” and that “my job is not to worry about” people who won’t “take personal responsibility and care for their lives” was pretty stunning any way you look at it.

It cements the impression of Romney as someone who cares only for the rich. It shows a contempt for others that had previously existed only in Democratic attack ads. It writes off half the nation. And it diminishes and undermines the substantial tradition of conservatives who do care about helping the less-fortunate. In this way, Romney’s self-revelation illuminates a troubling shift within the Republican Party that he has now come to embody.

First, some context: It’s true that 47 percent of workers paid no federal income tax in 2010. But Romney is wrong to imply they didn’t pay any taxes. Most paid Social Security, sales, payroll, and property taxes. Many paid a higher percentage of their income than Romney did. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that only about 10 percent paid no federal tax at all, and most of those were retirees.

Regardless, the 47 percent figure has become an angry rallying cry for the sort of aggrieved conservatives who listen to a lot of talk radio. They decry parasites and self-anointed “victims”—as Romney sees them—who are evidently unworthy of attention or respect, even from a guy willing to cost himself plenty of the latter in his quest for votes. Read more.....

Early 2013: Prepare For A Massive Food Price Surge; Up 175% from the Year 2000

The after-effects of 2012′s summer drought are far from over. According to a new analysis from Rabobank this year’s crop failure and premature slaughtering of pigs, cattle and other staple meats will lead to an average 15% surge in food prices in 2013.

It may not sound like much, but when you combine this with monetary easing that threatens to rapidly depreciate the value of the dollar and an already indebted U.S. consumer, we can expect even more participants to enter government nutritional assistance programs. It’s more expensive than ever before just to stay alive.

The record US, and global, summer drought has come and gone but its aftereffects are only now going to be felt, at least according to a new Rabobank report, which asserts that food prices are about to soar by 15% or more following mass slaughter of farm animals which will cripple supply once the current inventory of meat is exhausted. From Sky News: “The worst drought in the US for almost a century, combined with droughts in South America and Russia, have hit the production of crops used in animal feed – such as corn and soybeans – especially hard, the report said. As a result farmers have begun slaughtering more pigs and cattle, temporarily increasing the meat supply – but causing a steep rise in the price of meat in the long-term as production slows. Read more...

Napolitano: “We Know Far More About the CIA Than We Do the Federal Reserve”

Judge Napolitano weighs in on the recent actions of the Federal Reserve, and asks why now is the opportune time to officially introduce the next round of quantitative easing: The job of the CIA is to steal and keep secrets. We know far more about the CIA than we do about the Federal Reserve. Its members are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, yet it’s a private bank that makes its own money, regulates the economy, and can print money. The Federal government doesn’t print money.

The Federal Reserve prints money. It’s not federal. It’s not a reserve. It’s a private bank. …Why is it flooding the market with cash? …He’s going to create out of thin air forty billion dollars in cash and put it in the accounts of the Federal government. That is more cash chasing, available for, the same amount of goods and service. Answer: inflation. What goes up first? The thing we use the most… Fuel, food…beer. Read more.....

It's Time to Air Out Ben Bernanke's Dirty Laundry

Now that the Fed has engaged in QE 3 (which is essentially QE infinite since it’s meant to run until things get where the Fed wants them), I decided to go back and count the recap the Fed/Feds’ interventions since the Great Crisis began in 2007.

Here’s a recap of some of the larger moves made during the Crisis:

• Cutting interest rates from 5.25-0.25% (Sept ’07-today).
• The Bear Stearns deal/ taking on $30 billion in junk mortgages (Mar ’08).
• Opening various lending windows to investment banks (Mar ’08).
• Hank Paulson spends $400 billion on Fannie/ Freddie (Sept ’08).
• The Fed takes over insurance company AIG for $85 billion (Sept ’08).
• The Fed doles out $25 billion for the automakers (Sept ’08)
• The Feds kick off the $700 billion TARP program (Oct ’08)
• The Fed buys commercial paper from non-financial firms (Oct ’08)
• The Fed offers $540 billion to backstop money market funds (Oct ’08)
• The Fed agrees to back up to $280 billion of Citigroup’s liabilities (Oct ’08).
• $40 billion more to AIG (Nov ’08)
• The Fed backstops $140 billion of Bank of America’s liabilities (Jan ’09)
• Obama’s $787 Billion Stimulus (Jan ’09)
• QE 1 buys $1.25 trillion in Treasuries and mortgage debt (March ’09)
• QE lite buys $200-300 billion of Treasuries and mortgage debt (Aug ’10)
• QE 2 buys $600 billion in Treasuries (Nov ’10)
• Operation Twist 2 (Nov ’11)
• QE 3 buys $40 billion in Mortgage Backed Securities every month from now on (Sept. ’12)

That’s one heck of a list. And the worst part is I know I’ve left something out somewhere. Read more.....

Romney tries to pivot with push on Obama redistribution comment

Mitt Romney's campaign looked to pivot Tuesday from his controversial "47 percent" comment by highlighting new audio that shows President Obama saying in 1998 that he "believe[s] in redistribution."

The Republican presidential candidate, appearing on Fox News, defended his comments during which he said "47 percent" of voters are "dependent on the government" by saying he was drawing a contrast between his own economic vision and that of the president's.

"Frankly we have two different views about America," Romney said. "The president's view is one of a larger government. There is a tape that came out where is the president is saying he likes redistribution. I disagree. I think a society based upon a government centered nation where government plays a larger role and redistributes money, [that's the] wrong course for America."

Romney was referencing a YouTube video linked prominently on the influential website the Drudge Report. It's from a 1998 conference at Loyola University. In the clip, Barack Obama, who was an Illinois state senator the time, discusses fighting against anti-government sentiment through government reforms, and says that he believes in the idea of redistribution.

"I think the trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources, and hence facilitate some redistribution, because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level, to make sure that everybody has a shot," Obama says. Read more......

$7 Million Found In Dead Man’s Prepper Stash: “Nobody Had Any Clue He Was Hoarding the Gold”

May we all be as prosperous as 69 year old prepper Walter Samaszko Jr., who was recently found deceased in his Nevada home.

Likewise, may we all be as tight-lipped about what we’ve got in our stockpiles.

When police entered his home after calls from concerned neighbors they were surprised to discover some $7 million worth of gold.

The operational security surrounding his stash was top notch, as not a single person had any idea what was hidden in his garage, throughout his house, and buried in his yard.

They found gold in boxes in the garage — lots of gold.

“At that point, we took the house apart,” Glover said.

That included a thorough search of the house itself, the crawl space beneath as well as a search of the entire yard using a metal detector.

Glover said they found box after box of gold coins and bullion, all neatly wrapped in aluminum foil and plastic cases.

“There were dos-pesos smaller than a dime, five-peso coins, $20 gold pieces, gold sovereigns, Austrian duc ats, Krugerrands; you name it, (he) had it.”

Based on just the weight of the gold alone, Glover said he estimates the value of the gold at about $7 million but that, since some of the coins appear to be collector’s items, it could go much higher. Some of the English Sovereigns, he said, date to the 1840s. He is hiring an expert to value the coins. Read more.....

10 Shocking Quotes About What QE3 Is Going To Do To America

Ready or not, QE3 is here, and the long-term effects of this reckless money printing by the Federal Reserve are going to be absolutely nightmarish. The Federal Reserve is hoping that buying $40 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities per month will spur more lending and more economic activity. But that didn’t happen with either QE1 or QE2. Both times the banks just sat on most of the extra money. As I pointed out the other day, U.S. banks are already sitting on $1.6 trillion in excess reserves. So will pumping them up with more cash suddenly make them decide to start lending? Of course not. In addition, QE3 is not likely to produce many additional jobs.

As I showed in a previous article, the employment level did not jump up as a result of either QE1 or QE2. So why will this time be different? But what did happen under both QE1 and QE2 is that a lot of the money ended up pumping up the financial markets. So once again we should see stock prices go up (at least in the short-term) and commodities such as gold, silver, food and oil should also rise. But that also means that average American families will be paying more for the basic necessities that they buy on a regular basis. The most dangerous aspect of QE3, however, is what it is going to do to the U.S. dollar.

Most of the rest of the world uses the U.S. dollar to conduct international trade, and by choosing to recklessly print money Ben Bernanke is severely damaging international confidence in our currency. If at some point the rest of the world rejects the dollar and no longer wants to use it as a reserve currency we are going to be facing a crisis unlike anything we have ever seen before. The real debate about QE3 should not be about whether or not it will help the economy a little bit in the short-term. Rather, everyone should be talking about the long-term implications and about how QE3 is going to accelerate the destruction of the dollar. Read more.....

Romney Stands By “Entitlement” Comments; Calls For Release of Full Video

Mitt Romney has called for the release of the full video in which he was captured on hidden camera stating that Obama supporters believed they were “victims” and deserved “entitlements” like health care, food and housing.

Asked if he was worried that he had offended the 47 percent of people he mentioned in the statement, Romney did not back off his remarks.

“It’s not elegantly stated, let me put it that way,” Romney said. “I’m speaking off the cuff in response to a question, and I’m sure I can state it more clearly in a more effective way than I did in a setting like that and so I’m sure I’ll point that out as time goes on.”

But, he added, “It’s a message which I am going to carry and continue to carry.”

“My campaign is about helping people take more responsibility and becoming employed again, particularly those who don’t have work,” Romney said. “His whole campaign is based on getting people jobs again, putting people back to work. This is ultimately a question about direction for the country. Do you believe in a government-centered society that provides more and more benefits or do you believe instead in a free enterprise society where people are able to pursue their dreams?” Read more.....

“Dollar Index Headed for Rapid Collapse” Over Next 3 to 4 Weeks

If you think the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing will only affect the US dollar, think again. Now that the United States has officially begun it’s third round of money printing to the tune of at least $40 billion monthly, central banks around the world will also act to ‘defend’ their currencies in kind.

Moreover, because everyone is joining the fray, all of that extra money will make its way into key resource stocks and commodities, adding further upside price pressure to essential goods like food and fuel.

It’s a race to the bottom, and the losers are the 99.9% of us who aren’t being kept in the loop.

Quantitative easing is really another word for currency wars. A weak U.S. currency puts continued pressure on the Japanese Yen, the Chinese Yuan, the South Korean Won, the Australian dollar and other currencies.

Cheap money also fuels speculation and this money quickly drifts into commodity markets and the ETFs that help propel commodity market speculation. This is inflationary for food prices.

The lower the U.S. dollar the greater the intensity of currency wars. The break below the key uptrend line on the Dollar Index chart was an early warning of the third round of quantitative easing (QE3). Read more....

Cheaper Student Loans. Who Knew?

In his speech at the Democratic convention, former President Bill Clinton heaped praise upon a program that the Obama administration started to help people repay their student loans. Known as “income-based repayment,” it lets borrowers adjust monthly payments down to 15 percent of their income and wipe out the debt after 15 years. “No one will ever have to drop out of college again for fear they can’t repay their debt,” Clinton said. “If someone wants to take a job with a modest income—a teacher, a police officer, if they want to be a small-town doctor in a little rural area—they won’t have to turn those jobs down because they don’t pay enough to repay the debt. Their debt obligation will be determined by their salary. This will change the future for young Americans.”

It’s notable that Clinton talked about how many people the program would help in the future. It’s actually been around since 2009. So far it hasn’t worked as well as policy makers had hoped.

Right now only 972,000 graduates—about 2.6 percent of all borrowers—are using income-based repayment. Two to three million further borrowers could qualify for the program, says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, who crunched U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Census data to devise his estimate.

Why would so many graduates with the option of paying less every month not take it? Read more.....

Are Stocks Doomed by Demographics?

The stock market got a big boost on Sept. 13 when the Federal Reserve announced it would be pumping money into the financial system for as long as it takes to lift the economy. But what if the Fed is up against a force that’s stronger than money—demographics?

Last week I came across a gloomy analysis on the aging of America’s impact on the economy. Then I found strategists who are using demographics to make a bullish case. Here are the details.

An economics blog posted a depressing speech given by author and newsletter writer Harry Dent, called “A Decade of Volatility: Demographics, Debt, and Deflation.” “There is,” Dent says, “simply no way the Fed can win the battle it’s currently waging against deflation, because there are 76 million Baby Boomers who increasingly want to save, not spend. Old people don’t buy houses!”

He explains that the peak of the recent housing boom featured upper-middle-class families living in 4,000-square-foot McMansions. “About ten years from now,” he says, “what will they do? They’ll downsize to a 2,000-square-foot townhouse. What do they need all those bedrooms for? The kids are gone. They don’t visit anymore. Ten years after that, where are they? They’re in 200-square-foot nursing homes. Ten years later, where are they? They’re in a 20-square-foot grave plot. That’s the future of real estate. That’s why real estate has not bounced in Japan after 21 years. That’s why it won’t bounce here in the U.S. either. For every young couple that gets married, has babies, and buys a house, there’s an older couple moving into a nursing home or dying.” Read more.....

The Human Cost: “Your Life And The Lives of Those You Love Are Just Pawns On Their Chessboard”

There is no single event that has brought the world to the crisis which we now face. It’s been a coordinated, long-term plan whose seeds were sown decades ago.

It will soon come to a head on an economic and geo-political scale, and the consequences will be severe for most of the seven billion people on this planet.

It should be clear that military intervention in Syria and Iran isn’t being considered; it’s a forgone conclusion, just as it was in Iraq and Libya. The U.S. is actively working to create the context which gives them the diplomatic cover to do what they already have planned.

The motive for these invasions and covert actions becomes clear when we look at them in their full context and connect the dots. Those who control the United States understand that even if a few countries begin to sell their oil in another currency it will set off a chain reaction and the dollar will collapse.

They understand that there is absolutely nothing else holding up the value of dollar at this point, and so does the rest of the world. But rather than accepting the fact that the dollar is nearing the end of its lifespan, The Powers That Be have made a calculated gambit.

They have decided to use the brute force of the U.S. military to crush each and every resistant state in the middle east and Africa. That in itself would be bad enough. Read more.....

With QE3, We All Win -- Poor and Rich Alike

Today’s Federal Reserve announcement is a big deal. We’re not just getting another round of quantitative easing, but an open-ended one that will continue until the labor market improves.

And accommodative monetary policy will continue “for a considerable time after the economic recovery strengthens,” with short-term rates at or below 0.25 percent through mid-2015.

This is great news for the labor market and the economy, and the markets are reacting as such: As of 1:30 PM, the S&P 500 is up 1.3 percent on the announcement. This is consistent with past experience: We have repeatedly seen that when the Fed announces easing, the equity markets react favorably.

When the Fed wasn’t being so easy, it came under fire from (among others) Paul Krugman for acting in the interests of a “rentier class.” This is a group of wealthy bankers and bondholders that benefits from low inflation and doesn’t have to care about unemployment, and therefore desires excessively tight monetary policy. Read more.....

U.S. Jobless Rate Drops for the Worst of All Reasons

The U.S. economy added just 96,000 jobs in August, falling short of expectations and showing that with a presidential election just two months away, the nation still has a long ways to go to heal from the deep 2007-09 recession. The unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent, but that was only because 368,000 people left the labor force. The share of working-age people who are either working or looking for work—known as the labor-force participation rate—fell to its lowest level since September 1981.

Stock and bond prices rose after the report came out, but it wasn’t because traders felt cheerful about the economy. Just the opposite: They concluded that the lousy report increased the likelihood that the Federal Reserve would further ease monetary conditions at its next meeting Sept. 12-13. Easy money is reliably good for the financial markets, even if it doesn’t quickly translate into stronger economic performance. “It’s just this new upside-down world of investing that we’re living in where bad news is good news for assets,” Michael Mullaney, who helps manage $9.5 billion as chief investment officer at Fiduciary Trust in Boston, told Bloomberg.

The unemployment rate has been above 8 percent since February 2009, a month after Obama’s inauguration—the longest period of such elevated joblessness since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Obama acknowledged the economy’s weakness in accepting the Democratic nomination on Thursday, saying, “Yes, our road is longer, but we travel it together.” He argued that his plan to rebuild the economy “may be harder but it leads to a better place.” Read more......

Get Ready For An Epic Fiat Currency Avalanche

What is it that makes Keynesians so insanely self destructive? Is it their mindless blind faith in the power of government? Their unfortunate ignorance of the mechanics of monetary stimulus? Their pompous self-righteousness derived from years of intellectual idiocy? Actually, I suspect all of these factors play a role. Needless to say, many of them truly believe that the strategy of fiat injection is viable, even though years of application have proven absolutely fruitless. Anyone with any sense would begin to question what kind of madness it takes to pursue or champion the mindset of the private Federal Reserve bank…

Quantitative easing has shown itself to be impotent in the improvement of America’s economic situation. Despite four years of free reign in central banking, employment remains dismal in the U.S., the housing market continues its freefall, and, our national debt swirls like a vortex at the heart of the Bermuda Triangle. Despite this abject failure of Keynesian theory, the Federal Reserve is attempting once again to convince you, the happy-go-lucky American citizen, that somehow, this time around, everything will be “different”.

Sadly, as I discussed in August of this year, not only has the Fed announced a new and UNLIMITED round of stimulus measures, but the European Central Bank has also devised its own bond buying free for all: Read more.......