July 2011
320 posts
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U.S. Debt Clock →
This will blow your mind.
Tick . . . tick . . . tick . . .
. . . while Washington fiddles.
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The Great Debt Ceiling Debate →
If you thought you knew what was going on behind the scenes in Washington, think again. Here’s the complete story . . . in pictures.
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Five Things You Need to Know About the Economy →
The five things you need to know about the U.S. economy:
1. The U.S. remains in the grip of a debt-induced depression.
2. Interest rates can’t stay low.
3. There is no non-disruptive way to resolve the debt.
4. The monetary system is irretrievably broken and will be
replaced.
5. The government is not your friend.
Casey’s Daily Dispatch
David Galland, Managing...
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Countdown To 7 Billion: A Tale Of Two Worlds :... →
econblues2011:
world blues 2011 posts partial
The United Nations says that sometime around Halloween the seven-billionth person will be born into this world — most likely in India, which is on track to overtake China as the most populous nation in just 16 years.
This latest milestone may not come as a surprise. But it is remarkable nonetheless. It took Earth 50,000 years to reach the one...
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The Death of the Dollar →
The Gold Report: You recently wrote that these are not normal times. Perhaps the current macroeconomic picture is the new normal? Jay Taylor: The new normal is being shaped. We haven’t seen the final product yet. The new normal will be a world in which most Americans do not enjoy the standard of living that they have enjoyed in the past. I think this directly results from a situation in...
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“Nationalism of one kind or another was the cause of most of the genocide of the...”
– Arundhati Roy (War Talk)
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A People's History of the United States →
Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922 – January 27, 2010) was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People’s History of the United States. He wrote extensively about the Civil...
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America Held Hostage to Two-Party Failure →
zeitgeistmovement:
“It is easier to destroy than to build democracy. Concerted assaults on democracy over four decades serve the ends of those who deem it their right to rule and reign: Republican religious ideologues and acolytes of Milton Friedman economics. Disaster capitalists precipitate crises by running up huge deficits (during the Reagan and Bush one and two regimes), followed by demands...
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“Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man made, and it can...”
– Nelson Mandela (via zeitgeistmovement)
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Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites,... →
Twenty-to-One
By Rakesh Kochhar, Richard Fry and Paul Taylor, Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends July 26, 2011
The median wealth of white households is 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly available government data from 2009.
These lopsided wealth ratios are the largest...
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The global debt clock
World debt comparison:
An interactive overview of government debt across the planet
http://www.economist.com/content/global_debt_clock
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Debt Ceiling Dilemma: The Foul Choice Facing... →
By Chris Martenson
— Posted Thursday, 28 July 2011
A Foul Choice
With interest rates on ‘safe’ sovereign debt at or near zero on the short end, and well below the rate of inflation on the long end, safe bonds offer a negative real yield (meaning a yield below the rate of inflation). This is a compounding disaster for everyone but especially for pension funds with their...
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Defining the Moment: The Internet Reformation →
Thursday, July 28, 2011 – by Anthony Wile
All across the world, the modern Internet Reformation is beginning to reshape the way people relate to power in the modern age. While it is not so obvious as during the era of the Gutenberg press, there is formal doctrine accepted by Western societies that is beginning to shatter. That formal doctrine may be termed regulatory democracy and it has been...
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Debt Ceiling Debate Not the Real Point
Thursday, July 28, 2011 – by Staff Report
Debt-limit debate wearing on Americans … As an Aug. 2 deadline draws closer and Washington’s political brinkmanship only intensifies, Americans are discussing the potential consequences of failing to raise the debt ceiling, which authorizes the federal government’s borrowing to meet expenses...
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Relegated to history?
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Greece Credit Rating Downgraded to a CC rating →
ATHENS, Greece — Standard and Poor’s on Wednesday relegated Greek government bonds to the deeper end of junk status, cutting the debt-crippled country’s credit rating by 2 notches to CC, with a negative outlook.
The international ratings agency said a proposed restructuring of Greece’s heavy debt load under a second international bailout deal worth euro109 billion...
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zeitgeistmovement:
“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.”
—
Samuel Adams
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Small Farms May Be Better For Food Security And... →
zeitgeistmovement:
greensocietycampaign:
A good Article by mister David Suzuki. Very intriguing. I will make you rethink the way we think about food production.
“This is in part because the global food shortage is a myth. The fact that we live in a world where hunger and obesity are both epidemic shows that the problem is more one of equity and distribution than shortage. With globalized...
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Why Do Conservatives Hate High-Speed Rail? 5... →
zeitgeistmovement:
In addition to busting unions and gutting voting rights, Tea Party governors are refusing federal funding for high-speed rail. What do they have against it?
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A clue to the American value system
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A Thousand Pictures Is Worth One Word →
By Jeff Clark, BIG GOLD
— Posted Wednesday, 27 July 2011
In spite of constant headlines about debts and deficits, most Americans don’t really believe the U.S. dollar will collapse. From knowledgeable investors who study the markets to those seemingly too busy to worry about such things, most dismiss the idea of the dollar actually going to zero.
History has a message for us: No...
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What Didn't Change When Nixon Cut the Gold Link →
By: Ben Traynor, BullionVault
— Posted Wednesday, 27 July 2011
The monetary system that dates back to August 1971 shares one vital trait with its predecessor…
“LET ME lay to rest the bugaboo of what is called devaluation,” Richard Nixon told his fellow Americans on August 15 1971.
The 37th President had just announced the US would “temporarily”...
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Gold’s Surge Predicts Deal Will Be Sausage
By: Rick Ackerman, Rick’s Picks
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Our elected leaders need only look at the chart below to see how the budget stalemate will turn out. Gold has been rising at an exceedingly steep pitch since early July, implying that whatever deal emerges from the sausage factory on Capitol Hill, it will not much affect the ongoing destruction of the dollar that began in...
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The Debt Ceiling Charade
By Jeff Berwick, The Dollar Vigilante
— Posted Wednesday, 27 July 2011
What a circus the debate over the raising of the US Government debt ceiling has become. It’s fun to watch everyone involved wriggling around trying to ignore the blue whale in the room.
It used to be an elephant… perhaps around 1986. But now, after a decade of wars and trillion dollar deficits,...
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Banks Should Die for Their Countries, Not... →
After intense debate, Greece’s EU partners and the International Monetary Fund have just staved off Greece’s impending default on its maturing debt by a $165 billion loan. But Athens must soon make more huge payments. The EU aid package piles more debt onto Greece’s already mountainous debts – just as President Barack Obama is doing in the UUS.
The Papandreou government is praying the EU will...
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A Visualization Of United States Debt →
One Trillion Dollars - When the U.S government speaks about a 1.7 trillion deficit - this is the volumes of cash the U.S. Government borrowed in 2010 to run itself. Keep in mind it is double stacked pallets of $100 million dollars each, full of $100 dollar bills. You are going to need a lot of trucks to freight this around.
If you spent $1 million a day since Jesus was born, you would have not...
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Impact of Dollar Default by U.S.
The main impact of a default by the U.S. would be a further fracture in the developed world monetary system, pressuring investors to seek alternatives over the long term. This damage will not be repairable.
One of these long-term consequences will be the acceleration of the internationalization of the Chinese Yuan, so that China reduces its vulnerability to the undermining of the dollar,...
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Another Victim of Recession
The uncertain economic climate of the past few years has led many couples in the U.S. and Europe to abandon plans to have babies. The steady increases in birth rates seen in almost all European countries since around 2000 ended after the crash of 2008. Even if boom times return it could take some time before confidence is sufficiently restored to bring about a recovery in birth rates.
...
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Obama Demagogues Default
By: John Browne
Senior Market Strategist, Euro Pacific Capital, Inc.
— Posted Tuesday, 26 July 2011
President Obama has continued and increased the reckless spending of the previous Administration. Now, as the federal debt reaches its statutory limit, he is spreading fear and panic in the hopes of having it raised.
Many of the key people responsible for...
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Learn Austrian Economics →
A free resource list for learning about Austrian Economics compiled by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. to help beginners embark on a program of self-education. These are links to readings, lectures and videos, many available online.
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The Law of Sacrifice →
Society today tries to deny the law of sacrifice at every turn, promising people that they can fulfill their desires without having to forsake anything at all. “Lose weight without giving up your favorite foods!” “Get ripped without long workouts!” “Get rich without having to work hard!” The denial of the law of sacrifice is at the heart of things like our soaring credit card debt (US...
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There Is Life After Default →
Default and even repudiation are policy options that have benefits and costs, just as continuing to borrow and increasing the debt have benefits and costs. Reasonable people can disagree about the relevant magnitudes, but comparative institutional analysis is obviously the way to go here. (Unfortunately, most of the academic discussion has focused entirely on the possible short-term costs of...
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The Political Shell Game
The trick is to redirect attention away from what really matters to what appears to matter but doesn’t.
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Edwin Vieira, Jr. on the Power Elite, the Police... →
Dr. Vieira holds four degrees from Harvard: A.B. (Harvard College), A.M. and Ph.D. (Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences), and J.D. (Harvard Law School). For over thirty-six years he has been a practicing attorney, specializing in cases that raise issues of constitutional law. He has presented numerous cases of import before the Supreme Court and written numerous monographs and articles in...
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The Pesky Neighbor and the Debt Ceiling By: Dr. Ron Paul, U.S. Congressman
— Posted Monday, 25 July 2011
Imagine you had a pesky neighbor who somehow took out a mortgage on his house in your name and by some legal trickery you were obligated to pay for it. Imagine watching this neighbor throw drunken parties, buy expensive cars, add more rooms to the house, and hire dozens of people...
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Fiat Currency Is The Bubble, Not Gold →
Fiat Currency is the Bubble
Today’s ADD culture and non-financial literate, government educated populace have forgotten that prior to 1971 gold, or at the very least something tied to gold, was money. Next month truly fiat global currencies celebrate their 40th anniversary.
All of the agents of the state and the international fiat bankers have tried for forty years to convince...
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