Sunday, August 30, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
I hear Turkey Flue is good with Cranberry Sauce
Chilie confirms Swine flu jumps to turkeys.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9A7E7380&show_article=1
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9A7E7380&show_article=1
Monday, August 17, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Officially Unemployed now
Well here I sit at the local Library using the net because my computer at home got a bug. Maybe the electronic swine flu.
I am going to get paid through Aug. But if I can't get a job between now and then I will need to apply for Unemployment in Sept. I will keep a log of what it is like in the process of trying to find a job in a crappy economy.
I have felt like this is the right desicion. I will have more time with the kids and wife. Hopefully I don't drive them crazy.
Sometimes I get the elephant of stress sitting on my chest. I want to go and puke. Or I feel like this is a great time to do what I would love to be doing.
Anyway, Peace out!
I am going to get paid through Aug. But if I can't get a job between now and then I will need to apply for Unemployment in Sept. I will keep a log of what it is like in the process of trying to find a job in a crappy economy.
I have felt like this is the right desicion. I will have more time with the kids and wife. Hopefully I don't drive them crazy.
Sometimes I get the elephant of stress sitting on my chest. I want to go and puke. Or I feel like this is a great time to do what I would love to be doing.
Anyway, Peace out!
Friday, June 26, 2009
And now America has changed
Well I guess we can't expect the Senators to read the Green Bill since most Americans don't read the fine print anyway.
We're screwed.
We're screwed.
Friday, June 19, 2009
I like this guys posts - check out http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/
.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Continuing Claims Drop First Time In 21 Weeks. Is This Worth Getting Excited Over?
Unless this is another headfake, the string of 21 consecutive weeks of higher continuing claims ended today. Interestingly, the 4-week moving average of continuing claims actually rose.
Previously I reported the streak ended at 17 unless the numbers were revised, but revised they were.
With that backdrop, please consider the Department of Labor Weekly Claims Report.
Seasonally Adjusted Data
In the week ending June 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 608,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 605,000. The 4-week moving average was 615,750, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week's revised average of 622,750.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 5.0 percent for the week ending June 6, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate of 5.1 percent.
The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending June 6 was 6,687,000, a decrease of 148,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 6,835,000. The 4-week moving average was 6,757,500, an increase of 2,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 6,755,250.
Weekly Claims
click on chart for sharper image
For six weeks I have been saying the dip in initial claims from the March peak of roughly 650,000 is not accelerating very fast, if indeed at all.
In three months the 4-week moving average of initial claims has gained roughly 35,000 jobs. For the sake of argument let's call it 15,000 jobs per month. At that rate it will take another 4 months just to get to where we were a year ago and those were God awful numbers at 381,500 claims a week.
Of course things might speed up significantly, then again I was reasonably generous with the initial rate of improvement.
The Reality
Yahoo Finance is reporting Jobless benefit rolls post first dip since January.
The number of people receiving unemployment aid fell by 148,000 to 6.69 million in the week that ended June 6 -- the largest drop in more than seven years. The decline broke a string of 21 straight increases in the number of people claiming benefits for more than a week, the last 19 of which were records. (A dip in continuing claims several weeks ago was later revised higher.)
On the surface, the government seemed to signal Thursday that more Americans are finding jobs: The number of people receiving unemployment aid fell for the first time since early January.
But that doesn't necessarily mean more companies are hiring.
Fewer people are receiving jobless aid largely because more of them have exhausted their standard unemployment benefits, which typically last 26 weeks. Government figures, in fact, show the proportion of recipients who used up their jobless benefits in May topped 49 percent, a monthly record.
Given that the proportion of recipients who used up their jobless benefits topped a monstrous 49 percent, the continuing claims number going forward will be essentially meaningless. Indeed, the primary reason we set these records in the first place is that many states extended benefits.
Looking ahead, expect the administration to highlight the huge drop in continuing claims as if it means something necessarily good. It doesn't. The drop in continuing claims means more home foreclosures and credit card defaults are coming because 49% of those who were receiving benefits now have no money coming in at all.
Finally, The drop in initial claims is insignificant in relation to the problem. Beware of future spin on meaningless "improvements" because it is coming.
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Continuing Claims Drop First Time In 21 Weeks. Is This Worth Getting Excited Over?
Unless this is another headfake, the string of 21 consecutive weeks of higher continuing claims ended today. Interestingly, the 4-week moving average of continuing claims actually rose.
Previously I reported the streak ended at 17 unless the numbers were revised, but revised they were.
With that backdrop, please consider the Department of Labor Weekly Claims Report.
Seasonally Adjusted Data
In the week ending June 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 608,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 605,000. The 4-week moving average was 615,750, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week's revised average of 622,750.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 5.0 percent for the week ending June 6, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate of 5.1 percent.
The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending June 6 was 6,687,000, a decrease of 148,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 6,835,000. The 4-week moving average was 6,757,500, an increase of 2,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 6,755,250.
Weekly Claims
click on chart for sharper image
For six weeks I have been saying the dip in initial claims from the March peak of roughly 650,000 is not accelerating very fast, if indeed at all.
In three months the 4-week moving average of initial claims has gained roughly 35,000 jobs. For the sake of argument let's call it 15,000 jobs per month. At that rate it will take another 4 months just to get to where we were a year ago and those were God awful numbers at 381,500 claims a week.
Of course things might speed up significantly, then again I was reasonably generous with the initial rate of improvement.
The Reality
Yahoo Finance is reporting Jobless benefit rolls post first dip since January.
The number of people receiving unemployment aid fell by 148,000 to 6.69 million in the week that ended June 6 -- the largest drop in more than seven years. The decline broke a string of 21 straight increases in the number of people claiming benefits for more than a week, the last 19 of which were records. (A dip in continuing claims several weeks ago was later revised higher.)
On the surface, the government seemed to signal Thursday that more Americans are finding jobs: The number of people receiving unemployment aid fell for the first time since early January.
But that doesn't necessarily mean more companies are hiring.
Fewer people are receiving jobless aid largely because more of them have exhausted their standard unemployment benefits, which typically last 26 weeks. Government figures, in fact, show the proportion of recipients who used up their jobless benefits in May topped 49 percent, a monthly record.
Given that the proportion of recipients who used up their jobless benefits topped a monstrous 49 percent, the continuing claims number going forward will be essentially meaningless. Indeed, the primary reason we set these records in the first place is that many states extended benefits.
Looking ahead, expect the administration to highlight the huge drop in continuing claims as if it means something necessarily good. It doesn't. The drop in continuing claims means more home foreclosures and credit card defaults are coming because 49% of those who were receiving benefits now have no money coming in at all.
Finally, The drop in initial claims is insignificant in relation to the problem. Beware of future spin on meaningless "improvements" because it is coming.
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Monday, June 8, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Seattle to be Nuked? That sucks.
Article from Press TV.
Seattle warned of 'imminent' nuke attack
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=97219§ionid=3510203
Seattle warned of 'imminent' nuke attack
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=97219§ionid=3510203
China to buy IMF bonds
From Article "Chinese officials have indicated that at least some of the IMF bonds it will buy will be in SDRs, which would help to diversify its US dollar-dominated foreign exchange reserves."
Link
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6fee1d66-51ec-11de-b986-00144feabdc0.html
Link
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6fee1d66-51ec-11de-b986-00144feabdc0.html
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Phoenix school closes due to H1N1
Here is the link
http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2009/05/18/daily24.html
This is an area of low income people. Many migrants live in the area.
http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2009/05/18/daily24.html
This is an area of low income people. Many migrants live in the area.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
RFID's and the tracking abilities
More info on RFID chips and check points.
http://www.theftdefender.com/article_read.asp?title=R.F.I.D.+%26%2339;Highway+Surveillance+%26%2339;CHECKPOINT%26%2339;+System+Online+and+GROWING&item=49
**** Anyone see these boxes?****
http://www.theftdefender.com/article_read.asp?title=R.F.I.D.+%26%2339;Highway+Surveillance+%26%2339;CHECKPOINT%26%2339;+System+Online+and+GROWING&item=49
**** Anyone see these boxes?****
Edible RFID tags and Kodak patent
Here is the article Short and sweet.
Kodak envisions edible RFID tags for medical purposes, light snacks
by Darren Murph, posted Feb 13th 2007 at 7:49PM
If you're not down with wearing, handling, or implanting RFID chips on (or in) human beings, we presume you're fairly skeptical about consuming one. A recent patent application filed by Kodak envisions an edible RFID wafer that would ideally be used to monitor various aspects of a patient's health. The digestible tag would be covered in a substance that would slow the dissolving process enough to view certain aspects of one's innards, and furthermore, these tags could be surgically implanted into knees and joints in order to alert doctors when additional work should be performed. The tags could even be integrated into medicines in order to more accurately witness whether a rebellious patient has indeed swallowed his or her pills. So before you cry foul on voluntarily ingesting a (hopefully) dissolving RFID tag, just think of all the medical breakthroughs this could lead to -- or how traceable you'd eternally be if your gastric acid is weaker than usual.
[Via NewScientistTech, thanks Matt]
Kodak envisions edible RFID tags for medical purposes, light snacks
by Darren Murph, posted Feb 13th 2007 at 7:49PM
If you're not down with wearing, handling, or implanting RFID chips on (or in) human beings, we presume you're fairly skeptical about consuming one. A recent patent application filed by Kodak envisions an edible RFID wafer that would ideally be used to monitor various aspects of a patient's health. The digestible tag would be covered in a substance that would slow the dissolving process enough to view certain aspects of one's innards, and furthermore, these tags could be surgically implanted into knees and joints in order to alert doctors when additional work should be performed. The tags could even be integrated into medicines in order to more accurately witness whether a rebellious patient has indeed swallowed his or her pills. So before you cry foul on voluntarily ingesting a (hopefully) dissolving RFID tag, just think of all the medical breakthroughs this could lead to -- or how traceable you'd eternally be if your gastric acid is weaker than usual.
[Via NewScientistTech, thanks Matt]
RFID's abilities grow
At RFID Journal Live! in Orlando last week (28-29 April 2009) it became obvious that RFID has outgrown the "identification" (ID) part of the acronym and now deserves to be viewed as "information technology" (IT). While there are still many applications requiring only a unique ID, the range and scope of RF-enabled products and services clearly indicate that the industry understands that RF tags are only one component in a larger IT system. That means that it's not just important to identify an item but also to gather data about it -- its location, condition, attributes, etc. -- and then to manipulate, manage and benefit from that data.
Full Article here
http://www.aimglobal.org/members/news/templates/template.aspx?articleid=3482&zoneid=24
Full Article here
http://www.aimglobal.org/members/news/templates/template.aspx?articleid=3482&zoneid=24
Nokia to put RFID chips into phones
http://www.mercurynews.com/nationworld/ci_12355589
The Article states that customers should have the ability to turn off the chip.
Hmmm, really?
The Article states that customers should have the ability to turn off the chip.
Hmmm, really?
Veri Chip make Human tags smaller
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/13/verichip_medcomp/
Great little article on the "benefits" to having a smaller human sub-dermal chip.
I hate shots.
Great little article on the "benefits" to having a smaller human sub-dermal chip.
I hate shots.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Yep we're screwed.
This just in:
Consumer credit falls at fastest pace in 18 years
May 7 02:04 PM US/Eastern
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
AP Economics Writer
Comments (6) Share on Facebook
WASHINGTON (AP) - Consumer borrowing plunged in March at the fastest pace in 18 years as Americans put away their credit cards and hoarded cash amid the worst recession in decades.
The Federal Reserve says consumer borrowing dropped 5.2 percent in March, the biggest decline since an 8.1 percent fall in December 1990.
In dollar terms, consumer borrowing plunged by $11.1 billion. That's the largest dollar amount on records dating to 1943, and more than three times the $3.5 billion drop that economists expected
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Consumer credit falls at fastest pace in 18 years
May 7 02:04 PM US/Eastern
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
AP Economics Writer
Comments (6) Share on Facebook
WASHINGTON (AP) - Consumer borrowing plunged in March at the fastest pace in 18 years as Americans put away their credit cards and hoarded cash amid the worst recession in decades.
The Federal Reserve says consumer borrowing dropped 5.2 percent in March, the biggest decline since an 8.1 percent fall in December 1990.
In dollar terms, consumer borrowing plunged by $11.1 billion. That's the largest dollar amount on records dating to 1943, and more than three times the $3.5 billion drop that economists expected
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
10 predictions for the Worst Case Senario
Found great Article. Yikes!
The Worst Case Scenario (Someone Has to Say It) 193 comments
May 03, 2009 | about stocks: DIA / QQQQ / SPY / TBT / TLT
Big Jake
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Since the economy began sliding downhill in late 2007, mainstream economic and market experts have consistently erred on the sunny side.
As late as June 2008, mainstream consensus held that the U.S. was heading for a “soft landing” and would avoid recession. Several months later, the slump was acknowledged to have started in January 2008, but we were supposed to see renewed growth by mid-2009, with unemployment peaking in the eight-to-nine percent range. A quick “shovel-ready” stimulus bag was supposed to set us back on the road to prosperity.
In January, recovery projections were pushed forward to late 2009. Today, the consensus is for a mid-2010 recovery, with unemployment peaking at just over 10 percent. Clearly, the mainstream has struggled to catch up to reality for well over one year. What are the chances that they finally have it right this time?
Moreover, the mainstream continues to see what is going on as a plain-vanilla recession that will be quelled with some on-the-fly monetary and fiscal tinkering. Washington, we are told, will pull us out of this slump—as soon as the masses can be enticed back to the shopping malls. Then things will return to how they were before. But what if the experts and politicians are wrong not only on their ever-changing recovery timeline, but also on the nature—nay, the very existence—of a recovery?
America’s reigning political-economic ideology has demonstrably failed. Given that its government is obviously fumbling along without a clue, its foreign and domestic credit is tapped out, and its 300 million people are discovering that their hopes for continuous material improvement will never be met, could the U.S. be headed the way of the USSR?
Instead of a recovery as the mainstream envisions it, what if America permanently bankrupts, impoverishes, and marginalizes itself? What if its cherished institutions fail across the board? For example, what happens when the police realize that their under-funded pension plans cannot support a decent retirement? Will they stay honest, or will they opt to survive by any means necessary? These are questions that the mainstream does not even begin to contemplate.
In the interests of providing you with an alternate vision—something outside the mainstream—below are ten predictions for America through the year 2012. This is not boilerplate doom-saying. Rather, I am laying out in highly specific terms what will happen over the next three-odd years. Others have thrown around the term “Depression”, but I am going to tell you precisely what it means for you, your investments, and your community.
When these predictions come true, I expect to be rewarded with a seven-figure consulting gig, a book contract, or a high-level position in whatever administration succeeds the doomed Obama team—that is, if anyone succeeds it at all.
Prediction one. The twenty-five-year equities bubble pops in 2009. U.S. and foreign equities markets will stop treading water and realign with economic reality. Stock prices will cease to reflect the “greater fool” mentality and will return to being a function of dividend yields, which have long been miserable. The S&P 500 will sink below 500. In a bid to stem the panic, the government will enforce periodic “stock market holidays”, and will vastly expand the scope of its short-selling prohibitions—eventually banning short-selling altogether.
Prediction two. With public pension systems and tens of millions of 401k holders virtually wiped out—and with the Baby Boomers retiring en masse—there will be tremendous pressure on the government to get into the stock market in order to bid up prices.
Therefore, sometime in 2010, the Federal Reserve will create and loan out hundreds of billions of fresh dollars to the usual well-connected suspects, instructing them to buy up stocks on the public’s behalf. This scheme will have a fancy but meaningless name—something like the “Taxpayer Assurance Equities Facility”. It will have no effect other than to serve as buyer of last resort for capitulating smart-money types who want to get out of stocks entirely.
Prediction three. Millions of new retirees—including white-collar people with high expectations for a Golden Retirement—will be left virtually penniless. Thousands will starve or freeze to death in their own homes. Hundreds of thousands will find themselves evicted and homeless, or will have to move in with their less-than-enthusiastic children. Already strained by the rising tide of the working-age unemployed, state and local welfare services will be overwhelmed, and by 2012 will have largely collapsed and ceased to function in many parts of the country.
Prediction four. “Quantitative easing” will fail to restart previous patterns of lending and consumption. As the government sends out additional “rebate” checks and takes ever-more drastic measures to force banks to lend, hyperinflation could take hold. However, comprehensive debt relief via a devaluation of the dollar is even more likely. This would entail the government issuing one “new” dollar for some greater number of “old” dollars—thus reducing both debts and savings simultaneously. This would make for a clean slate a la Fight Club.
As there are many more debtors than savers in the U.S., the vast majority would support devaluation. The Chinese and other foreign holders of our bonds would be screaming mad, but unable to do anything. Every country that has not found a way out of dollar-denominated reserve assets by 2012 will see its reserves eliminated.
Prediction five. The government will stop pretending that it can finance continuous multi-trillion-dollar deficits on the private market. By late 2010, the sole buyers of new U.S. Treasury and agency bonds will be the Federal Reserve and a few derelict financial institutions under government control. This may or may not lead to hyperinflation. (See prediction four).
Prediction six. As the need for financial industry paper-pushers declines and people have less money to spend on lawyers and Starbucks (SBUX), unemployment will rise until the private sector has eliminated all of its excess capacity and superfluous or socially needless jobs. The government’s narrow unemployment figure (U3) will rise into the high teens by late 2010. The government’s broader unemployment figure (U6) will cease to be reported when it reaches 25 percent—it will simply be too embarrassing. Ultimately, one in three work-eligible Americans will be unemployed, underemployed, or never-employed (e.g. college grads permanently unable to find suitable work).
Prediction seven. With their pension dreams squashed, and their salaries frozen or cut, police and other local government workers will turn to wholesale corruption in order to survive. America’s ideal of honest, courteous, and impartial cops, teachers, and small-time local functionaries will have come to an end.
Prediction eight. Commercial overcapacity will strike with a vengeance. By 2012, thousands of enclosed malls, strip malls, unfinished residential developments, motels, truck stops, distribution centers, middle-of-nowhere resorts and casinos, and small-city airports across America will turn into dilapidated, unwanted, and dangerous ghost towns. With no economic incentive for their maintenance or repair, they will crumble into overgrown, plywood-and-sheet-rock ruins.
Prediction nine. By the end of 2010, tens of millions of households will have fallen behind on their mortgages or stopped paying altogether. Many banks will be unable to process the massive volume of foreclosure paperwork, much less actually seize and resell the homes.
Devaluation (as mentioned in prediction four) could ease the situation for those mortgage holders still afloat, but it would also eliminate any incentive for most banks to stay in the mortgage business. In any case, the housing market in many parts of the country will lock up completely—nothing bought or sold.
With virtually no loans being made, even the government will finally acknowledge that most banks are fundamentally insolvent. A general bank run will only be averted through a roughly one trillion-dollar recapitalization of the FDIC, courtesy of new money from the Federal Reserve.
Prediction ten. As an economy is never independent of the society within which it functions, the next few paragraphs will focus on social and political factors. These factors will have as much of an impact on market and consumer confidence as any developments in the financial sector.
Whether rightly or not, President Obama, having come to power at the dawn of this crisis, will be blamed for it by over 50 percent of the population. He will be a one-term president. In response to his perceived socialization of America, there will be a swarm of secessionist and extremist activity, much of it violent. Militias and armed sects will be more prominent than in the early 1990s. Stand-off dramas, violent score-settlings, and going-out-with-a-bang attacks by laid-off workers and bankrupted investors—already a national plague—will become an everyday occurrence.
For both economic and social reasons, millions of immigrants and guest workers will return to their home countries, taking their assets and skills with them. The flow of skilled immigrants will slow to a trickle. Birth rates will plummet as families struggle with uncertainty and reduced (or no) income.
Property crime will explode as citizens bitter over their own shattered dreams attempt to comfort themselves by taking what is not theirs. Mutinies and desertions will proliferate in an increasingly demoralized, over-stretched military, especially when states can no longer provide the educational and other benefits promised to their National Guard troops.
There will be widespread tax collection issues, and a huge backlash against Federal and state bureaucrats who demand three-percent annual pay raises while private sector wages remain frozen or worse. In short, the “Tea Parties” of tomorrow will likely not be so restrained.
Finally, between now and 2012, we are likely to see another earth-shaking national embarrassment on the scale of the 9/11 attacks or Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. This will demonstrate conclusively to all Americans that their government, even under a savior-figure like Obama, cannot, in fact, save them.
By 2012, there will be a general feeling that the nation is in immediate danger of blowing up or coming apart at the seams. This fear will be justified, given that the U.S. has always been held together by the promise of a continuously rising material standard of living—the famous “pursuit of happiness”—rather than any ethnic or religious ties. If that goes, so could everything else. We were lucky in the 1930s—we may not be so lucky again.
Disclosure: no positions relevant to this column.
The Worst Case Scenario (Someone Has to Say It) 193 comments
May 03, 2009 | about stocks: DIA / QQQQ / SPY / TBT / TLT
Big Jake
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About this author:
Profile & More Articles
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Since the economy began sliding downhill in late 2007, mainstream economic and market experts have consistently erred on the sunny side.
As late as June 2008, mainstream consensus held that the U.S. was heading for a “soft landing” and would avoid recession. Several months later, the slump was acknowledged to have started in January 2008, but we were supposed to see renewed growth by mid-2009, with unemployment peaking in the eight-to-nine percent range. A quick “shovel-ready” stimulus bag was supposed to set us back on the road to prosperity.
In January, recovery projections were pushed forward to late 2009. Today, the consensus is for a mid-2010 recovery, with unemployment peaking at just over 10 percent. Clearly, the mainstream has struggled to catch up to reality for well over one year. What are the chances that they finally have it right this time?
Moreover, the mainstream continues to see what is going on as a plain-vanilla recession that will be quelled with some on-the-fly monetary and fiscal tinkering. Washington, we are told, will pull us out of this slump—as soon as the masses can be enticed back to the shopping malls. Then things will return to how they were before. But what if the experts and politicians are wrong not only on their ever-changing recovery timeline, but also on the nature—nay, the very existence—of a recovery?
America’s reigning political-economic ideology has demonstrably failed. Given that its government is obviously fumbling along without a clue, its foreign and domestic credit is tapped out, and its 300 million people are discovering that their hopes for continuous material improvement will never be met, could the U.S. be headed the way of the USSR?
Instead of a recovery as the mainstream envisions it, what if America permanently bankrupts, impoverishes, and marginalizes itself? What if its cherished institutions fail across the board? For example, what happens when the police realize that their under-funded pension plans cannot support a decent retirement? Will they stay honest, or will they opt to survive by any means necessary? These are questions that the mainstream does not even begin to contemplate.
In the interests of providing you with an alternate vision—something outside the mainstream—below are ten predictions for America through the year 2012. This is not boilerplate doom-saying. Rather, I am laying out in highly specific terms what will happen over the next three-odd years. Others have thrown around the term “Depression”, but I am going to tell you precisely what it means for you, your investments, and your community.
When these predictions come true, I expect to be rewarded with a seven-figure consulting gig, a book contract, or a high-level position in whatever administration succeeds the doomed Obama team—that is, if anyone succeeds it at all.
Prediction one. The twenty-five-year equities bubble pops in 2009. U.S. and foreign equities markets will stop treading water and realign with economic reality. Stock prices will cease to reflect the “greater fool” mentality and will return to being a function of dividend yields, which have long been miserable. The S&P 500 will sink below 500. In a bid to stem the panic, the government will enforce periodic “stock market holidays”, and will vastly expand the scope of its short-selling prohibitions—eventually banning short-selling altogether.
Prediction two. With public pension systems and tens of millions of 401k holders virtually wiped out—and with the Baby Boomers retiring en masse—there will be tremendous pressure on the government to get into the stock market in order to bid up prices.
Therefore, sometime in 2010, the Federal Reserve will create and loan out hundreds of billions of fresh dollars to the usual well-connected suspects, instructing them to buy up stocks on the public’s behalf. This scheme will have a fancy but meaningless name—something like the “Taxpayer Assurance Equities Facility”. It will have no effect other than to serve as buyer of last resort for capitulating smart-money types who want to get out of stocks entirely.
Prediction three. Millions of new retirees—including white-collar people with high expectations for a Golden Retirement—will be left virtually penniless. Thousands will starve or freeze to death in their own homes. Hundreds of thousands will find themselves evicted and homeless, or will have to move in with their less-than-enthusiastic children. Already strained by the rising tide of the working-age unemployed, state and local welfare services will be overwhelmed, and by 2012 will have largely collapsed and ceased to function in many parts of the country.
Prediction four. “Quantitative easing” will fail to restart previous patterns of lending and consumption. As the government sends out additional “rebate” checks and takes ever-more drastic measures to force banks to lend, hyperinflation could take hold. However, comprehensive debt relief via a devaluation of the dollar is even more likely. This would entail the government issuing one “new” dollar for some greater number of “old” dollars—thus reducing both debts and savings simultaneously. This would make for a clean slate a la Fight Club.
As there are many more debtors than savers in the U.S., the vast majority would support devaluation. The Chinese and other foreign holders of our bonds would be screaming mad, but unable to do anything. Every country that has not found a way out of dollar-denominated reserve assets by 2012 will see its reserves eliminated.
Prediction five. The government will stop pretending that it can finance continuous multi-trillion-dollar deficits on the private market. By late 2010, the sole buyers of new U.S. Treasury and agency bonds will be the Federal Reserve and a few derelict financial institutions under government control. This may or may not lead to hyperinflation. (See prediction four).
Prediction six. As the need for financial industry paper-pushers declines and people have less money to spend on lawyers and Starbucks (SBUX), unemployment will rise until the private sector has eliminated all of its excess capacity and superfluous or socially needless jobs. The government’s narrow unemployment figure (U3) will rise into the high teens by late 2010. The government’s broader unemployment figure (U6) will cease to be reported when it reaches 25 percent—it will simply be too embarrassing. Ultimately, one in three work-eligible Americans will be unemployed, underemployed, or never-employed (e.g. college grads permanently unable to find suitable work).
Prediction seven. With their pension dreams squashed, and their salaries frozen or cut, police and other local government workers will turn to wholesale corruption in order to survive. America’s ideal of honest, courteous, and impartial cops, teachers, and small-time local functionaries will have come to an end.
Prediction eight. Commercial overcapacity will strike with a vengeance. By 2012, thousands of enclosed malls, strip malls, unfinished residential developments, motels, truck stops, distribution centers, middle-of-nowhere resorts and casinos, and small-city airports across America will turn into dilapidated, unwanted, and dangerous ghost towns. With no economic incentive for their maintenance or repair, they will crumble into overgrown, plywood-and-sheet-rock ruins.
Prediction nine. By the end of 2010, tens of millions of households will have fallen behind on their mortgages or stopped paying altogether. Many banks will be unable to process the massive volume of foreclosure paperwork, much less actually seize and resell the homes.
Devaluation (as mentioned in prediction four) could ease the situation for those mortgage holders still afloat, but it would also eliminate any incentive for most banks to stay in the mortgage business. In any case, the housing market in many parts of the country will lock up completely—nothing bought or sold.
With virtually no loans being made, even the government will finally acknowledge that most banks are fundamentally insolvent. A general bank run will only be averted through a roughly one trillion-dollar recapitalization of the FDIC, courtesy of new money from the Federal Reserve.
Prediction ten. As an economy is never independent of the society within which it functions, the next few paragraphs will focus on social and political factors. These factors will have as much of an impact on market and consumer confidence as any developments in the financial sector.
Whether rightly or not, President Obama, having come to power at the dawn of this crisis, will be blamed for it by over 50 percent of the population. He will be a one-term president. In response to his perceived socialization of America, there will be a swarm of secessionist and extremist activity, much of it violent. Militias and armed sects will be more prominent than in the early 1990s. Stand-off dramas, violent score-settlings, and going-out-with-a-bang attacks by laid-off workers and bankrupted investors—already a national plague—will become an everyday occurrence.
For both economic and social reasons, millions of immigrants and guest workers will return to their home countries, taking their assets and skills with them. The flow of skilled immigrants will slow to a trickle. Birth rates will plummet as families struggle with uncertainty and reduced (or no) income.
Property crime will explode as citizens bitter over their own shattered dreams attempt to comfort themselves by taking what is not theirs. Mutinies and desertions will proliferate in an increasingly demoralized, over-stretched military, especially when states can no longer provide the educational and other benefits promised to their National Guard troops.
There will be widespread tax collection issues, and a huge backlash against Federal and state bureaucrats who demand three-percent annual pay raises while private sector wages remain frozen or worse. In short, the “Tea Parties” of tomorrow will likely not be so restrained.
Finally, between now and 2012, we are likely to see another earth-shaking national embarrassment on the scale of the 9/11 attacks or Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. This will demonstrate conclusively to all Americans that their government, even under a savior-figure like Obama, cannot, in fact, save them.
By 2012, there will be a general feeling that the nation is in immediate danger of blowing up or coming apart at the seams. This fear will be justified, given that the U.S. has always been held together by the promise of a continuously rising material standard of living—the famous “pursuit of happiness”—rather than any ethnic or religious ties. If that goes, so could everything else. We were lucky in the 1930s—we may not be so lucky again.
Disclosure: no positions relevant to this column.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Not sure what to make of this but ...
Posted to Alex Jones comments.
TheGhost Reply:
May 6th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Dear: Alex Jones
I am a research scientist in the field of hydrogen technology. A close friend of mine and a fellow scientist introduced me to your radio program. I have been listening to your program for the past year now. I have come to believe you are for the people of this wonderful country of ours, for that reason I would like to tell you my story. I am Blackfoot Sioux Indian from the Browning Res. in Montana. As a child I grew up in a house full of truck drivers my father, my mother, and both my brothers all drive truck. I watched my entire family work themselves to death in a semi. They worked hundreds of hours a week trying just to make ends meet paying for fuel in my father’s business.
In 1990 I was given the Cattell III (A+B) MENSA exam and scored in the top 1% of the populace. My parents were approached by the Department of Defense and my father thought it best if he signed me over to the Federal Government for further studies. I was seventeen at the time when my parents signed me over to be part of project named “Calypso” a government advanced study program at the US School of The America’s Ft. Benning, GA. I was placed with hundreds of other children from many different countries around the world. The testing that was preformed was mostly to find out how our minds functioned and if we could understand advanced technology just by looking at it. I had a special gift in Molecular Physics and could understand the most advanced complex structures used in molecular manipulation and fusion.
Many of us were weeded out of the group and put into smaller study groups and given tasks to perform. In Feb. 1991 I and four others were sworn in at the US Army School of Advanced Military Studies, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. I was placed in a study group at the Chemical/Bio-Weapons, Scientific Studies, and Research & Development Center there. During this time we were given hand drawn blue prints and documents dating from 1766 from English Physicist and Chemist Henry Cavendish along with blue prints and documents from Nikola Tesla, Don Dingle, Stan Myers, Paul Pantone, and many others. Our team was asked to review these documents and see if any of their theories that existed could be used to design a viable system for military use. Over the course of several years my team designed and retrofitted an on-demand hydrogen production system for use in many pieces of military equipment still in use today.
Later that year I was secretly speaking with Eugene Mallove about some of the systems that we were working on. He was very interested in the processes that our group was developing. At that time he told me about the suppression of technology that was going on. I got very concerned that maybe the technology that I was working on could be used against the ones that I love. I started an information campaign within the groups and was building a team to help get the information out to the public.
The first of my team to be killed was a brilliant engineer in KY 2002. While riding his Harley there another bike with two assailants drove by at high speed and hit him in the head with a club killing him instantly. It would be said that it was from a rival biker gang who mistakenly killed Jamie thinking he was someone else. Two months after this incident I was approached by a black car while running on base at Ft. Campbell, KY they followed me during my entire run and I kept looking back with the thought they were from CID.
On that day my wife and my young son would be picked up at our house in Clarksville, TN and taken to the airport on base and sent back to Malaysia. I filed several petitions trying to get them back and to find out where they were sent to. They had no records or information and no records of them being registered on or off base. The Government revoked my passport and has made me a prisoner in my own country making it impossible to travel. They also made it impossible for me to find work by eliminating all official documents of my being in the service or having a Doctorial Degree in Molecular Physics, outside of going back to them. They made my entire past and I being a real person disappear including SS, DL, and supporting documents of my past experiences. This spooked me as you can imagine and I laid low for awhile hoping to get them back.
I went AWOL in June 2003 after I had exhausted all avenues to get my family back. I was visited in Dec. 2003 in Wisconsin where I felt I was safely hidden from the DOD. I was wrong to think that they would not be able to find me because of my military training and background. They kindly asked me to return to duty or be faced with UCMJ charges. I was told if I played by their rules they would reinstate me and my family could come home. I followed their orders in hopes this would get my life and family back. I would teach Bio-Weapons Defense to DHS through the course of the next year at a MS training center. They still had not returned my family to me and I had spent several months serving their cause. While teaching there in March 2004 I learned of Eugene being murdered in his parent’s rental property. This triggered the thought that I would be next in line.
I finished the course that day with SR and got in my pickup truck and drove away from there not looking back. I got rid of all my credit cards and anything that could be traced back to me. I was trying to get back home to Montana. While I was laid over in a hotel in Sioux Falls, SD, I went next door to a bar that was across the street a band was playing. I drank some and watched the band till the end.
At 1:30am I walked out of the bar and a pickup truck with five guys pulled up next to me tossed a bag over my head throwing me into the bed of the truck. The entire time they hit me with clubs. I don’t know how long it lasted, but when they stopped they drug me out of the truck. I still had the bag over my head one of them shot me in the left side. I heard one of them say that f–ker has got to be dead. They got back into their truck and drove off.
I laid there praying they would not return. I think at that point I passed out for awhile. When I woke up I managed to get the bag off my head I crawled towards a light I could see in the distance. I had managed to crawl to a farm house and banged on the door. When he opened the door to see me laid out on his stoop, he helped me to my feet and he said I was the bloodiest thing he had ever seen in all his years. He wanted to call the police but I begged that he did not in fear they would come back and finish the job. I talked him into taking me to the hotel where I got cleaned up I was still bleeding pretty bad at the time. He told me not to worry and that he would help.
He called a vet friend of his who was another older fellow I could tell they had been friends for a very long time. He said I am not going to ask you any questions, but I need to get you fixed up. They patched me up enough to get me to his clinic where he removed the bullet from my side.
I was starting to wake up from the incident when I got to thinking to myself. How did they know where I was? I asked the man if he had an ultrasound machine and he affirmed that he had. I asked him to look at different places on my body where to my surprise he found two small glass cylinders one imbedded in the back of my skull just under the skin on the left side of my head and the other in between the radius and ulna in my right arm. To this day, I do not know how either one of them got there. He gladly removed them both and destroyed them on the spot. I told the men it would probably be best if they not speak about me or this night to anyone. I left the clinic and got in my truck and drove off. I did not go back home I was afraid that they would somehow find out I was still alive and hurt my family to find me.
I drove until I had no gas left in the truck I was out of money and out of time. The town I stopped in had a carnival playing I walked to the carnival and thought this would be the best place to hide out. I went to work for a show that was at the carnival. They did not ask me for any documents nor did they care if I had any. The owner of show would ask questions about my background all the time saying “I was much too smart to be working for a carnival.”
While at the Alameda County Fair in CA. I ran into a salesman who could not find a booth. I had a booth already and he asked if I would share the space with him. I told him I would. While he ran the booth I worked in my trailer on the designs for a hydrogen unit. I had never given up hope that this technology would get out to the people someday.
I was watching the booth and the salesmen started asking me questions about what I was working on. I decided to share with him the technology and a bit of my life story he was very interested. He said he wanted to help me find the right people to get it out to the public. I did not know at the time that he was Mormon and part of a large Mormon community he introduced me to several men I have grown to trust with my life. In the meantime I have been developing a hydrogen on-demand system for the public.
Alex I am here to tell you I have done it! With the help of some fine people I have finished my revolutionary hydrogen fuel and emissions system. This system can be used in both gas and diesel vehicles, but I have run into a snag. The federal government is back at it again. They have been spreading a fear campaign to stop this technology from getting out. I feel it is my duty to make sure this technology is not shelved or lost forever.
I am surrounded by people at all times from our group for safety reasons. What they have been doing is late night drive by’s and firing guns off near the property I am at. Twice now our group has been shot at while out fishing at a nearby lake. Recently they have been parking themselves next to the research center where we are doing the work at. They have also been taping our cell phones and videoing our comings and goings. They even went as far as going to our lead machinist home while he was at the shop, waking his wife up while she was sleeping, and flashing a badge that she could not read. They proceeded to search around the outside of their property. We suspected they may have tried to plant something they could use for a raid of the facility.
I am afraid that once again I have put my friends and family in the crossfire. This technology could make it possible for people to have their own power source for their cars, trucks, homes, and for this crisis that is quickly coming to a head. I cannot let that happen again.
I am asking you Alex to do a story about this technology. Cover it in one of your video interviews before it is too late and the technology is lost. I will put myself in harm’s way to do a live interview about this technology let you see for yourself the technology in action. People are going to be desperate for energy and this is their answer. This is not about making money hell I will cut you in on sales of the product which you could use to make more movies. I am not in this for the money I am in this to help save mankind and you can ask anyone who knows me if that is not 100% the truth. I would give up all of the money of this technology just to know I helped save a life, even if that life is not my own. I ask you Alex man to man patriot to patriot. You could turn this thing into a huge helping hand for the people. You have the power to make a change for all the people of this once bright country of ours. All you have to do is help bring them into the light of this clean renewable technology.
Please contact me.
TheGhost
P.S. I am sure this not going to sit well with the people in power. This is a last ditch effort on my part as I have sent this letter to your e-mail address several times. I have never received a reply. I hope and pray that by placing this information on your website that you will find it in your heart to reach out to find the truth. Thank You and God bless you for all your efforts.
TheGhost Reply:
May 6th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Dear: Alex Jones
I am a research scientist in the field of hydrogen technology. A close friend of mine and a fellow scientist introduced me to your radio program. I have been listening to your program for the past year now. I have come to believe you are for the people of this wonderful country of ours, for that reason I would like to tell you my story. I am Blackfoot Sioux Indian from the Browning Res. in Montana. As a child I grew up in a house full of truck drivers my father, my mother, and both my brothers all drive truck. I watched my entire family work themselves to death in a semi. They worked hundreds of hours a week trying just to make ends meet paying for fuel in my father’s business.
In 1990 I was given the Cattell III (A+B) MENSA exam and scored in the top 1% of the populace. My parents were approached by the Department of Defense and my father thought it best if he signed me over to the Federal Government for further studies. I was seventeen at the time when my parents signed me over to be part of project named “Calypso” a government advanced study program at the US School of The America’s Ft. Benning, GA. I was placed with hundreds of other children from many different countries around the world. The testing that was preformed was mostly to find out how our minds functioned and if we could understand advanced technology just by looking at it. I had a special gift in Molecular Physics and could understand the most advanced complex structures used in molecular manipulation and fusion.
Many of us were weeded out of the group and put into smaller study groups and given tasks to perform. In Feb. 1991 I and four others were sworn in at the US Army School of Advanced Military Studies, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. I was placed in a study group at the Chemical/Bio-Weapons, Scientific Studies, and Research & Development Center there. During this time we were given hand drawn blue prints and documents dating from 1766 from English Physicist and Chemist Henry Cavendish along with blue prints and documents from Nikola Tesla, Don Dingle, Stan Myers, Paul Pantone, and many others. Our team was asked to review these documents and see if any of their theories that existed could be used to design a viable system for military use. Over the course of several years my team designed and retrofitted an on-demand hydrogen production system for use in many pieces of military equipment still in use today.
Later that year I was secretly speaking with Eugene Mallove about some of the systems that we were working on. He was very interested in the processes that our group was developing. At that time he told me about the suppression of technology that was going on. I got very concerned that maybe the technology that I was working on could be used against the ones that I love. I started an information campaign within the groups and was building a team to help get the information out to the public.
The first of my team to be killed was a brilliant engineer in KY 2002. While riding his Harley there another bike with two assailants drove by at high speed and hit him in the head with a club killing him instantly. It would be said that it was from a rival biker gang who mistakenly killed Jamie thinking he was someone else. Two months after this incident I was approached by a black car while running on base at Ft. Campbell, KY they followed me during my entire run and I kept looking back with the thought they were from CID.
On that day my wife and my young son would be picked up at our house in Clarksville, TN and taken to the airport on base and sent back to Malaysia. I filed several petitions trying to get them back and to find out where they were sent to. They had no records or information and no records of them being registered on or off base. The Government revoked my passport and has made me a prisoner in my own country making it impossible to travel. They also made it impossible for me to find work by eliminating all official documents of my being in the service or having a Doctorial Degree in Molecular Physics, outside of going back to them. They made my entire past and I being a real person disappear including SS, DL, and supporting documents of my past experiences. This spooked me as you can imagine and I laid low for awhile hoping to get them back.
I went AWOL in June 2003 after I had exhausted all avenues to get my family back. I was visited in Dec. 2003 in Wisconsin where I felt I was safely hidden from the DOD. I was wrong to think that they would not be able to find me because of my military training and background. They kindly asked me to return to duty or be faced with UCMJ charges. I was told if I played by their rules they would reinstate me and my family could come home. I followed their orders in hopes this would get my life and family back. I would teach Bio-Weapons Defense to DHS through the course of the next year at a MS training center. They still had not returned my family to me and I had spent several months serving their cause. While teaching there in March 2004 I learned of Eugene being murdered in his parent’s rental property. This triggered the thought that I would be next in line.
I finished the course that day with SR and got in my pickup truck and drove away from there not looking back. I got rid of all my credit cards and anything that could be traced back to me. I was trying to get back home to Montana. While I was laid over in a hotel in Sioux Falls, SD, I went next door to a bar that was across the street a band was playing. I drank some and watched the band till the end.
At 1:30am I walked out of the bar and a pickup truck with five guys pulled up next to me tossed a bag over my head throwing me into the bed of the truck. The entire time they hit me with clubs. I don’t know how long it lasted, but when they stopped they drug me out of the truck. I still had the bag over my head one of them shot me in the left side. I heard one of them say that f–ker has got to be dead. They got back into their truck and drove off.
I laid there praying they would not return. I think at that point I passed out for awhile. When I woke up I managed to get the bag off my head I crawled towards a light I could see in the distance. I had managed to crawl to a farm house and banged on the door. When he opened the door to see me laid out on his stoop, he helped me to my feet and he said I was the bloodiest thing he had ever seen in all his years. He wanted to call the police but I begged that he did not in fear they would come back and finish the job. I talked him into taking me to the hotel where I got cleaned up I was still bleeding pretty bad at the time. He told me not to worry and that he would help.
He called a vet friend of his who was another older fellow I could tell they had been friends for a very long time. He said I am not going to ask you any questions, but I need to get you fixed up. They patched me up enough to get me to his clinic where he removed the bullet from my side.
I was starting to wake up from the incident when I got to thinking to myself. How did they know where I was? I asked the man if he had an ultrasound machine and he affirmed that he had. I asked him to look at different places on my body where to my surprise he found two small glass cylinders one imbedded in the back of my skull just under the skin on the left side of my head and the other in between the radius and ulna in my right arm. To this day, I do not know how either one of them got there. He gladly removed them both and destroyed them on the spot. I told the men it would probably be best if they not speak about me or this night to anyone. I left the clinic and got in my truck and drove off. I did not go back home I was afraid that they would somehow find out I was still alive and hurt my family to find me.
I drove until I had no gas left in the truck I was out of money and out of time. The town I stopped in had a carnival playing I walked to the carnival and thought this would be the best place to hide out. I went to work for a show that was at the carnival. They did not ask me for any documents nor did they care if I had any. The owner of show would ask questions about my background all the time saying “I was much too smart to be working for a carnival.”
While at the Alameda County Fair in CA. I ran into a salesman who could not find a booth. I had a booth already and he asked if I would share the space with him. I told him I would. While he ran the booth I worked in my trailer on the designs for a hydrogen unit. I had never given up hope that this technology would get out to the people someday.
I was watching the booth and the salesmen started asking me questions about what I was working on. I decided to share with him the technology and a bit of my life story he was very interested. He said he wanted to help me find the right people to get it out to the public. I did not know at the time that he was Mormon and part of a large Mormon community he introduced me to several men I have grown to trust with my life. In the meantime I have been developing a hydrogen on-demand system for the public.
Alex I am here to tell you I have done it! With the help of some fine people I have finished my revolutionary hydrogen fuel and emissions system. This system can be used in both gas and diesel vehicles, but I have run into a snag. The federal government is back at it again. They have been spreading a fear campaign to stop this technology from getting out. I feel it is my duty to make sure this technology is not shelved or lost forever.
I am surrounded by people at all times from our group for safety reasons. What they have been doing is late night drive by’s and firing guns off near the property I am at. Twice now our group has been shot at while out fishing at a nearby lake. Recently they have been parking themselves next to the research center where we are doing the work at. They have also been taping our cell phones and videoing our comings and goings. They even went as far as going to our lead machinist home while he was at the shop, waking his wife up while she was sleeping, and flashing a badge that she could not read. They proceeded to search around the outside of their property. We suspected they may have tried to plant something they could use for a raid of the facility.
I am afraid that once again I have put my friends and family in the crossfire. This technology could make it possible for people to have their own power source for their cars, trucks, homes, and for this crisis that is quickly coming to a head. I cannot let that happen again.
I am asking you Alex to do a story about this technology. Cover it in one of your video interviews before it is too late and the technology is lost. I will put myself in harm’s way to do a live interview about this technology let you see for yourself the technology in action. People are going to be desperate for energy and this is their answer. This is not about making money hell I will cut you in on sales of the product which you could use to make more movies. I am not in this for the money I am in this to help save mankind and you can ask anyone who knows me if that is not 100% the truth. I would give up all of the money of this technology just to know I helped save a life, even if that life is not my own. I ask you Alex man to man patriot to patriot. You could turn this thing into a huge helping hand for the people. You have the power to make a change for all the people of this once bright country of ours. All you have to do is help bring them into the light of this clean renewable technology.
Please contact me.
TheGhost
P.S. I am sure this not going to sit well with the people in power. This is a last ditch effort on my part as I have sent this letter to your e-mail address several times. I have never received a reply. I hope and pray that by placing this information on your website that you will find it in your heart to reach out to find the truth. Thank You and God bless you for all your efforts.
Pensions to be Nationalized?????
TUESDAY, MAY 5, 2009
Will Obama Seize Americans' 401k and IRA Funds?
There is a rumor floating around that Obama will seize Americans' retirement funds, like Argentina and some other countries have done.
Two investment newsletters - Green Chip Review and The Mining Speculator - have recently claimed that the 401k seizure is a sure thing.
Is this just crazy talk, or is there something to it?
And in October of 2008, the idea of confiscating private 401k and IRA accounts and replacing them with government accounts gained wide traction. See this, this, this, and this.
But are those plans still in the works, or has the idea been abandoned?
In January, Larry Grossman, Managing Director of Sovereign International Pension Services, said:
There have been several different academic papers published over the last few months, which have given rise to rumors such as these. At this point in time I am unaware of any such pending legislation.
But Grossman doesn't rule out the possibility.
And former U.S. congressman Bob Bauman (also of the Sovereign Society) thinks anything is possible :
It is possible that some brainless members of the U.S. Congress may have introduced a bill that seeks to nationalize pensions, but I hope that it will not be given serious consideration, even by the liberal Democrat majority now in control...
I served in the U.S. Congress when Democrats were in control and I've seen what happens when the Republicans are in charge. Meaning simply; anything can happen!
So will Obama seize Americans' retirement funds or not?
The bottom line is that I don't think anyone outside of government knows right now. This is more than just a wild rumor (as the government was seriously considering it in October) but it is not confirmed that the government is still eager to carry it out.
On the one hand, seizure of retirement funds would dramatically undermine confidence in America's financial system, and so it is hard to believe that the government would do it in the immediate future.
On the other hand, Congressman Bauman and Larry Grossman suggest transferring your retirement assets offshore just to be safe.
Note: I am not an investment advisor and this should not be taken as investment advice.
Update: See this.
TUESDAY, MAY 5, 2009
Will Obama Seize Americans' 401k and IRA Funds?
There is a rumor floating around that Obama will seize Americans' retirement funds, like Argentina and some other countries have done.
Two investment newsletters - Green Chip Review and The Mining Speculator - have recently claimed that the 401k seizure is a sure thing.
Is this just crazy talk, or is there something to it?
And in October of 2008, the idea of confiscating private 401k and IRA accounts and replacing them with government accounts gained wide traction. See this, this, this, and this.
But are those plans still in the works, or has the idea been abandoned?
In January, Larry Grossman, Managing Director of Sovereign International Pension Services, said:
There have been several different academic papers published over the last few months, which have given rise to rumors such as these. At this point in time I am unaware of any such pending legislation.
But Grossman doesn't rule out the possibility.
And former U.S. congressman Bob Bauman (also of the Sovereign Society) thinks anything is possible :
It is possible that some brainless members of the U.S. Congress may have introduced a bill that seeks to nationalize pensions, but I hope that it will not be given serious consideration, even by the liberal Democrat majority now in control...
I served in the U.S. Congress when Democrats were in control and I've seen what happens when the Republicans are in charge. Meaning simply; anything can happen!
So will Obama seize Americans' retirement funds or not?
The bottom line is that I don't think anyone outside of government knows right now. This is more than just a wild rumor (as the government was seriously considering it in October) but it is not confirmed that the government is still eager to carry it out.
On the one hand, seizure of retirement funds would dramatically undermine confidence in America's financial system, and so it is hard to believe that the government would do it in the immediate future.
On the other hand, Congressman Bauman and Larry Grossman suggest transferring your retirement assets offshore just to be safe.
Note: I am not an investment advisor and this should not be taken as investment advice.
Update: See this.
Will Obama Seize Americans' 401k and IRA Funds?
There is a rumor floating around that Obama will seize Americans' retirement funds, like Argentina and some other countries have done.
Two investment newsletters - Green Chip Review and The Mining Speculator - have recently claimed that the 401k seizure is a sure thing.
Is this just crazy talk, or is there something to it?
And in October of 2008, the idea of confiscating private 401k and IRA accounts and replacing them with government accounts gained wide traction. See this, this, this, and this.
But are those plans still in the works, or has the idea been abandoned?
In January, Larry Grossman, Managing Director of Sovereign International Pension Services, said:
There have been several different academic papers published over the last few months, which have given rise to rumors such as these. At this point in time I am unaware of any such pending legislation.
But Grossman doesn't rule out the possibility.
And former U.S. congressman Bob Bauman (also of the Sovereign Society) thinks anything is possible :
It is possible that some brainless members of the U.S. Congress may have introduced a bill that seeks to nationalize pensions, but I hope that it will not be given serious consideration, even by the liberal Democrat majority now in control...
I served in the U.S. Congress when Democrats were in control and I've seen what happens when the Republicans are in charge. Meaning simply; anything can happen!
So will Obama seize Americans' retirement funds or not?
The bottom line is that I don't think anyone outside of government knows right now. This is more than just a wild rumor (as the government was seriously considering it in October) but it is not confirmed that the government is still eager to carry it out.
On the one hand, seizure of retirement funds would dramatically undermine confidence in America's financial system, and so it is hard to believe that the government would do it in the immediate future.
On the other hand, Congressman Bauman and Larry Grossman suggest transferring your retirement assets offshore just to be safe.
Note: I am not an investment advisor and this should not be taken as investment advice.
Update: See this.
TUESDAY, MAY 5, 2009
Will Obama Seize Americans' 401k and IRA Funds?
There is a rumor floating around that Obama will seize Americans' retirement funds, like Argentina and some other countries have done.
Two investment newsletters - Green Chip Review and The Mining Speculator - have recently claimed that the 401k seizure is a sure thing.
Is this just crazy talk, or is there something to it?
And in October of 2008, the idea of confiscating private 401k and IRA accounts and replacing them with government accounts gained wide traction. See this, this, this, and this.
But are those plans still in the works, or has the idea been abandoned?
In January, Larry Grossman, Managing Director of Sovereign International Pension Services, said:
There have been several different academic papers published over the last few months, which have given rise to rumors such as these. At this point in time I am unaware of any such pending legislation.
But Grossman doesn't rule out the possibility.
And former U.S. congressman Bob Bauman (also of the Sovereign Society) thinks anything is possible :
It is possible that some brainless members of the U.S. Congress may have introduced a bill that seeks to nationalize pensions, but I hope that it will not be given serious consideration, even by the liberal Democrat majority now in control...
I served in the U.S. Congress when Democrats were in control and I've seen what happens when the Republicans are in charge. Meaning simply; anything can happen!
So will Obama seize Americans' retirement funds or not?
The bottom line is that I don't think anyone outside of government knows right now. This is more than just a wild rumor (as the government was seriously considering it in October) but it is not confirmed that the government is still eager to carry it out.
On the one hand, seizure of retirement funds would dramatically undermine confidence in America's financial system, and so it is hard to believe that the government would do it in the immediate future.
On the other hand, Congressman Bauman and Larry Grossman suggest transferring your retirement assets offshore just to be safe.
Note: I am not an investment advisor and this should not be taken as investment advice.
Update: See this.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Need some input folks.
With everything that has been going on with the economy, flu, martial law, Iran, Israel and everything else, Does it seem to be getting quieter on the blogs out there?
Many of the blogs and info I follow every week is not updated as much now. Not sure if it means anything. Maybe people feel better about things? So they are not posting as much? I am an info junkie and now my info is slowing down a bit.
Anyone else notice this? Am I wrong let me know? What other sites are out there?
Please comment. Thanks, SO
Many of the blogs and info I follow every week is not updated as much now. Not sure if it means anything. Maybe people feel better about things? So they are not posting as much? I am an info junkie and now my info is slowing down a bit.
Anyone else notice this? Am I wrong let me know? What other sites are out there?
Please comment. Thanks, SO
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Here is another article about the Person to Pig
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090503/ap_on_he_me/med_swine_flu_people_to_pigs_2
Now the flu jumps from People to Pigs. Hmmmm
AP reports of 200 pigs with, wait for it, SWINE FLU, caught the influenza from a worker that had returned from Mexico. Will this jump into the animal kingdom provide a nice little habitat to grow more virulent or lose it's strength?
Here is the article.
Swine flu goes person-to-pig; What's next?
Buzz UpSendSharePrint
AP – Navy Doctor Captain Manuel Velasco displays a patient's lung x-ray against a light box in the area where …
Slideshow:Swine Flu
By MARGIE MASON, AP Medical Writer – 1 hr 10 mins ago
MEXICO CITY – Now that the swine flu virus has passed from a farmworker to pigs, could it jump back to people? The question is important, because crossing species again could make it more deadly.
The never-before-seen virus was created when genes from pig, bird and human viruses mixed together inside a pig. Experts fear the virus that has gone from humans back into pigs in at least one case could mutate further before crossing back into humans again. But no one can predict what will happen.
"Could it gain virulence? Yes," Juan Lubroth, an animal health expert at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, said Sunday. "It could also become milder. It could go in both directions."
Canadian officials announced Saturday that the virus had infected about 200 pigs on a farm — the first evidence that it had jumped to another species. It was linked to a farmworker who recently returned from Mexico, where 19 people have died from the virus. The farmworker has recovered, and the mildly infected pigs have been quarantined.
Agriculture officials believe the worker may have sneezed or coughed near the pigs, possibly in a barn. About 10 percent of the herd experienced loss of appetite and fever, but all are recovering.
Experts say pork — even from infected pigs — is safe to eat.
Lubroth stressed that sick people should avoid contact with swine, but said healthy farmworkers don't need to take any extra precautions because the chance of catching flu from a pig is small.
Unlike the H5N1 bird flu virus, which infects the blood, organs and tissue of poultry, most swine flus are confined to the respiratory tract, meaning the risk of a human getting infected by a pig is "probably 10 or a 1,000 times less," Lubroth said.
But pigs are of special concern because they share some basic biological similarities with humans, and they have served as "mixing vessels" in which various flu strains have swapped genetic material. That's what happened to create the current swine flu strain.
Scientists are unsure when the virus leaped from pigs to humans — possibly months or even a year ago — but it was identified as a new strain about a week and a half ago. Since then, nearly 800 cases have been confirmed worldwide. The only death outside Mexico occurred when a Mexican toddler died in a Texas hospital.
There have been sporadic cases of pigs infecting humans with influenza in the past. Most cases resulted in mild symptoms, typically among people who were in close contact with sick pigs. A few deaths have been recorded, and limited human-to-human transmission also has been documented, but nothing sustained.
Dr. Tim Uyeki, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who has worked on SARS and bird flu outbreaks, said there may be more pig-to-human cases that have gone unnoticed because surveillance among swine populations tends to be weaker than among poultry stocks.
Given that the past three flu pandemics — the 1918 Spanish flu, the 1957-58 Asian flu and the Hong Kong flu of 1968-69 — were all linked to birds, much of the global pandemic preparedness has focused on avian flus.
"The world has been watching and preparing and trying to prevent a pandemic from an avian influenza reservoir," he said. "The focus has been on birds, and here is a virus that's coming from a swine reservoir. Now it's a human virus.
Here is the article.
Swine flu goes person-to-pig; What's next?
Buzz UpSendSharePrint
AP – Navy Doctor Captain Manuel Velasco displays a patient's lung x-ray against a light box in the area where …
Slideshow:Swine Flu
By MARGIE MASON, AP Medical Writer – 1 hr 10 mins ago
MEXICO CITY – Now that the swine flu virus has passed from a farmworker to pigs, could it jump back to people? The question is important, because crossing species again could make it more deadly.
The never-before-seen virus was created when genes from pig, bird and human viruses mixed together inside a pig. Experts fear the virus that has gone from humans back into pigs in at least one case could mutate further before crossing back into humans again. But no one can predict what will happen.
"Could it gain virulence? Yes," Juan Lubroth, an animal health expert at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, said Sunday. "It could also become milder. It could go in both directions."
Canadian officials announced Saturday that the virus had infected about 200 pigs on a farm — the first evidence that it had jumped to another species. It was linked to a farmworker who recently returned from Mexico, where 19 people have died from the virus. The farmworker has recovered, and the mildly infected pigs have been quarantined.
Agriculture officials believe the worker may have sneezed or coughed near the pigs, possibly in a barn. About 10 percent of the herd experienced loss of appetite and fever, but all are recovering.
Experts say pork — even from infected pigs — is safe to eat.
Lubroth stressed that sick people should avoid contact with swine, but said healthy farmworkers don't need to take any extra precautions because the chance of catching flu from a pig is small.
Unlike the H5N1 bird flu virus, which infects the blood, organs and tissue of poultry, most swine flus are confined to the respiratory tract, meaning the risk of a human getting infected by a pig is "probably 10 or a 1,000 times less," Lubroth said.
But pigs are of special concern because they share some basic biological similarities with humans, and they have served as "mixing vessels" in which various flu strains have swapped genetic material. That's what happened to create the current swine flu strain.
Scientists are unsure when the virus leaped from pigs to humans — possibly months or even a year ago — but it was identified as a new strain about a week and a half ago. Since then, nearly 800 cases have been confirmed worldwide. The only death outside Mexico occurred when a Mexican toddler died in a Texas hospital.
There have been sporadic cases of pigs infecting humans with influenza in the past. Most cases resulted in mild symptoms, typically among people who were in close contact with sick pigs. A few deaths have been recorded, and limited human-to-human transmission also has been documented, but nothing sustained.
Dr. Tim Uyeki, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who has worked on SARS and bird flu outbreaks, said there may be more pig-to-human cases that have gone unnoticed because surveillance among swine populations tends to be weaker than among poultry stocks.
Given that the past three flu pandemics — the 1918 Spanish flu, the 1957-58 Asian flu and the Hong Kong flu of 1968-69 — were all linked to birds, much of the global pandemic preparedness has focused on avian flus.
"The world has been watching and preparing and trying to prevent a pandemic from an avian influenza reservoir," he said. "The focus has been on birds, and here is a virus that's coming from a swine reservoir. Now it's a human virus.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Swine flu virus "explodes" on Swiss Train
Well isn't this nice. I am glad the "government" folks are so careful. :)
Print Story
A container of flu virus samples packed in dry ice exploded on a Swiss train, injuring one person but posing no other risks to humans, police said on Tuesday. Skip related content
The box held vials of swine flu virus, although a different strain than the H1N1 variety that has caused about 150 deaths in Mexico and infected people in the United States, Canada, Spain and Britain.
A technician was transporting the container on Monday night to the Swiss national flu centre in Geneva, where scientists are developing a flu test for humans, police said.
One woman was hurt when the box exploded in reaction to the dry ice used to keep the samples cold.
After consulting virus specialists, the police decided to stop the St. Gallen to Geneva train before it entered the station in Lausanne.
The virus specialists confirmed that the samples being transported posed no risks to humans, police said.
(Reporting by Sven Egenter; Editing by Laura MacInnis)
Print Story
A container of flu virus samples packed in dry ice exploded on a Swiss train, injuring one person but posing no other risks to humans, police said on Tuesday. Skip related content
The box held vials of swine flu virus, although a different strain than the H1N1 variety that has caused about 150 deaths in Mexico and infected people in the United States, Canada, Spain and Britain.
A technician was transporting the container on Monday night to the Swiss national flu centre in Geneva, where scientists are developing a flu test for humans, police said.
One woman was hurt when the box exploded in reaction to the dry ice used to keep the samples cold.
After consulting virus specialists, the police decided to stop the St. Gallen to Geneva train before it entered the station in Lausanne.
The virus specialists confirmed that the samples being transported posed no risks to humans, police said.
(Reporting by Sven Egenter; Editing by Laura MacInnis)
Internet hitting a wall?
Experts Warn Internet Is Running Out of Bandwidth
Thursday, April 30, 2009
PrintShareThis
Internet users face regular "brownouts" that will freeze their computers as capacity runs out in cyberspace, according to research to be published later this year.
Experts predict that consumer demand, already growing at 60 percent a year, will start to exceed supply as early as 2010 because of more people working online and the soaring popularity of bandwidth-hungry Web sites such as YouTube and services such as the BBC's iPlayer.
It will initially lead to computers being disrupted and going offline for several minutes at a time. Beginning in 2012, however, PCs and laptops are likely to operate at a much reduced speed, rendering the Internet an "unreliable toy."
When Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the British scientist, wrote the code that transformed a private computer network into the World Wide Web in 1991, the Internet appeared to be a limitless resource.
However, a report being compiled by Nemertes Research, a respected American think-tank, will warn that the Web has reached a critical point and that even the recession has failed to stave off impending problems.
• Click here to read the rest of this story in the Sunday Times of London.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
PrintShareThis
Internet users face regular "brownouts" that will freeze their computers as capacity runs out in cyberspace, according to research to be published later this year.
Experts predict that consumer demand, already growing at 60 percent a year, will start to exceed supply as early as 2010 because of more people working online and the soaring popularity of bandwidth-hungry Web sites such as YouTube and services such as the BBC's iPlayer.
It will initially lead to computers being disrupted and going offline for several minutes at a time. Beginning in 2012, however, PCs and laptops are likely to operate at a much reduced speed, rendering the Internet an "unreliable toy."
When Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the British scientist, wrote the code that transformed a private computer network into the World Wide Web in 1991, the Internet appeared to be a limitless resource.
However, a report being compiled by Nemertes Research, a respected American think-tank, will warn that the Web has reached a critical point and that even the recession has failed to stave off impending problems.
• Click here to read the rest of this story in the Sunday Times of London.
Welcome to the Swine Flu in WA
SWINE FLU: Six probable cases identified in Washington
By Herald staff
The state Department of Health says Washington now has six probable cases of swine flu. Three probable cases are from King County, two from Snohomish County and one from Spokane County.
After testing multiple flu samples since Monday, the department is now sending six samples it could not positively sub-type to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for further testing. Currently the CDC is the only public health lab in the country that can positively identify this virus.
"Health experts in our state are monitoring the situation and have a well-practiced plan in place," said Gov. Chris Gregoire. "I encourage all Washingtonians to follow the precautionary guidance of health officials and stay informed of the situation through county and state health resources."
Public health agencies have been looking for cases in Washington to confirm whether the virus is in our state. It’s important for people who are sick with flu-like symptoms to stay home or go to a health care provider if they become seriously ill. Symptoms of swine flu include fever, muscle aches, cough and sometimes trouble breathing.
"Tracking and responding to diseases is what public health agencies do best," said Secretary of Health Mary Selecky. "We need the people of our state to help prevent the spread of germs by covering their coughs and staying home if they’re sick. We’ll get through this together."
Since requesting all positive type A flu samples from clinical labs in the state, about 70 have been shipped to the Shoreline laboratory for further testing. Lab workers continue to test samples as they arrive. The CDC plans to send testing materials, known as "reagents" to the state laboratory in the next several days. These materials will allow workers to test for the new swine flu strain.
Almost 100 cases of this new flu strain have been confirmed in 10 U.S. states —Texas, California, Ohio, New York, Kansas, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Indiana. One death has been reported in Texas. Cases have also been reported in several countries.
Swine influenza is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza virus. This new strain is being spread by person-to-person contact. There’s no risk from eating properly cooked pork or pork products.
There’s currently no vaccine to prevent swine flu, but antiviral medications can treat it. These are generally used to prevent serious flu complications and work best if started soon after getting sick. Health care providers determine whether a person with influenza needs to take antivirals.
Within the next several days, the state expects to get a supply of antiviral medication from the federal government as a precaution. The medication will be enough to treat about 230,000 people, if needed. The stockpile also includes gloves and other medical supplies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Herald staff
The state Department of Health says Washington now has six probable cases of swine flu. Three probable cases are from King County, two from Snohomish County and one from Spokane County.
After testing multiple flu samples since Monday, the department is now sending six samples it could not positively sub-type to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for further testing. Currently the CDC is the only public health lab in the country that can positively identify this virus.
"Health experts in our state are monitoring the situation and have a well-practiced plan in place," said Gov. Chris Gregoire. "I encourage all Washingtonians to follow the precautionary guidance of health officials and stay informed of the situation through county and state health resources."
Public health agencies have been looking for cases in Washington to confirm whether the virus is in our state. It’s important for people who are sick with flu-like symptoms to stay home or go to a health care provider if they become seriously ill. Symptoms of swine flu include fever, muscle aches, cough and sometimes trouble breathing.
"Tracking and responding to diseases is what public health agencies do best," said Secretary of Health Mary Selecky. "We need the people of our state to help prevent the spread of germs by covering their coughs and staying home if they’re sick. We’ll get through this together."
Since requesting all positive type A flu samples from clinical labs in the state, about 70 have been shipped to the Shoreline laboratory for further testing. Lab workers continue to test samples as they arrive. The CDC plans to send testing materials, known as "reagents" to the state laboratory in the next several days. These materials will allow workers to test for the new swine flu strain.
Almost 100 cases of this new flu strain have been confirmed in 10 U.S. states —Texas, California, Ohio, New York, Kansas, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Indiana. One death has been reported in Texas. Cases have also been reported in several countries.
Swine influenza is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza virus. This new strain is being spread by person-to-person contact. There’s no risk from eating properly cooked pork or pork products.
There’s currently no vaccine to prevent swine flu, but antiviral medications can treat it. These are generally used to prevent serious flu complications and work best if started soon after getting sick. Health care providers determine whether a person with influenza needs to take antivirals.
Within the next several days, the state expects to get a supply of antiviral medication from the federal government as a precaution. The medication will be enough to treat about 230,000 people, if needed. The stockpile also includes gloves and other medical supplies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Scrapie, BSE, Proteins and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
Great article about Scrapie in sheep.
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM829X9.pdf
Proteins and virus's
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v7/n12/full/nm1201-1286.html
Is there a protein that is more common in Mexico than the US?
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM829X9.pdf
Proteins and virus's
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v7/n12/full/nm1201-1286.html
Is there a protein that is more common in Mexico than the US?
Time to buy some masks?
N95. May need to stop by and pick some up today.
Outbreak seems to be spreading. Possibly 2 deaths in LA.
Outbreak seems to be spreading. Possibly 2 deaths in LA.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
very cool google map of locations of swine flu
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=106484775090296685271.0004681a37b713f6b5950
DHS is incompetant.
US says not testing travelers from Mexico for flu
26 Apr 2009 17:19:55 GMT
Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - The United States is not testing airplane travelers from Mexico for the swine flu virus that has heightened fears of a possible pandemic, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Sunday.
"Right now we don't think the facts warrant more active testing or screening of passengers coming in from Mexico," she said at a White House briefing.
If the death rate is rising to an under reported 103 in Mexico. Do we have to wait till someone dies in the USA for Napolitano to check air travelers arriving from Mexico? Other countries are screening people. I think it is a good idea. All the cases of Swine Flu in the USA and around the world have a connection with travel to Mexico. I guess if we stick our heads in the sand everything is better.
I say.
1 - Screen travelers arriving from Mexico.
2 - Suspend all imports of products from Mexico till we know it is safe.
3 - Tighten the border!
This "outbreak" may be the straw that broke the camels back. This is coming at a time when our economy is week and failing. If other countries, like Russia is doing, start to ban USA and Mexican products that will cause a further slowdown.
I wouldn't be surprised if the markets are taking a hit tomorrow. More to watch.
US says not testing travelers from Mexico for flu
26 Apr 2009 17:19:55 GMT
Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - The United States is not testing airplane travelers from Mexico for the swine flu virus that has heightened fears of a possible pandemic, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Sunday.
"Right now we don't think the facts warrant more active testing or screening of passengers coming in from Mexico," she said at a White House briefing.
If the death rate is rising to an under reported 103 in Mexico. Do we have to wait till someone dies in the USA for Napolitano to check air travelers arriving from Mexico? Other countries are screening people. I think it is a good idea. All the cases of Swine Flu in the USA and around the world have a connection with travel to Mexico. I guess if we stick our heads in the sand everything is better.
I say.
1 - Screen travelers arriving from Mexico.
2 - Suspend all imports of products from Mexico till we know it is safe.
3 - Tighten the border!
This "outbreak" may be the straw that broke the camels back. This is coming at a time when our economy is week and failing. If other countries, like Russia is doing, start to ban USA and Mexican products that will cause a further slowdown.
I wouldn't be surprised if the markets are taking a hit tomorrow. More to watch.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Swine flu arrives in England
A Health Protection Agency (HPA) spokesman added: “We are aware of a patient admitted to a London hospital with reported travel history to Mexico. As a precautionary measure the patient is being tested for a range of respiratory and other illnesses in line with UK health guidance. At present there have been no confirmed cases of human swine flu in the UK or anywhere in Europe.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5222211/Mexican-killer-swine-flu-UK-on-alert.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5222211/Mexican-killer-swine-flu-UK-on-alert.html
Swine flu anyone?
Okay this could be very bad. Once they put travel advisories in place our economy will take another hit. Panic, Celente predicted food riots to follow? Will we find ourselves quarantined and wearing masks like in Mexico. Not good. Not good.
Will we now the primary vector? Was it man made? I will be watching this very closely.
It's on the headlines of the news sites now. Drudge has the most linked.
Keep us posted.
Thanks,
Dix
Will we now the primary vector? Was it man made? I will be watching this very closely.
It's on the headlines of the news sites now. Drudge has the most linked.
Keep us posted.
Thanks,
Dix
Friday, April 24, 2009
Thank Heaven's for food storage!!!!!
Here is a quick part of an article I'll link at the bottom.
Regarding the Mexico Outbreak and travel and FOOD restrictions.
Any decision to restrict food shipments due to flu would come from the U.S. Agriculture Department, which has the power to "shut down movement," said Russell Laird, an executive director representing agricultural and food carriers at the American Trucking Associations.
"So far, we haven't heard anything, but if that call is made we'll make sure to do our part," he said.
Katherine Andrus, general counsel for the Air Transport Association (ATA), said the airline trade group is taking its cues from the WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) but that so far there had been no decision to restrict travel between the United States and Mexico.
Article link: http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINN2443181920090424
Regarding the Mexico Outbreak and travel and FOOD restrictions.
Any decision to restrict food shipments due to flu would come from the U.S. Agriculture Department, which has the power to "shut down movement," said Russell Laird, an executive director representing agricultural and food carriers at the American Trucking Associations.
"So far, we haven't heard anything, but if that call is made we'll make sure to do our part," he said.
Katherine Andrus, general counsel for the Air Transport Association (ATA), said the airline trade group is taking its cues from the WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) but that so far there had been no decision to restrict travel between the United States and Mexico.
Article link: http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINN2443181920090424
Bring in the Swine...flu. Pandemic brewing?
Well if we have to deal with a pandemic outbreak of a mixed up H1N1 virus then it might as well be during economic collapse, countries redefining themselves and a massive power grab by governments. Well maybe if the outbreak does occur we may finally know if the FEMA camps are real and come in handy as quarantine sites.
I hope there are no ovens there.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.424c5b4c93103272a5d7bbabb402fdea.c1&show_article=1
I hope there are no ovens there.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.424c5b4c93103272a5d7bbabb402fdea.c1&show_article=1
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Credit Card Defaults on the rise
http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKTRE53E78D20090415
Here is a tasty treat!
Here is a tasty treat!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
No wonder he got tazed
After watching this schmucks other videos on Youtube I wanted to tazer him myself. What a pretentious little prick. You don't have to offend all the police doing their job.
So much for being a Pastor. I thought a Pastor was to set a good example. What a douche bag.
So much for being a Pastor. I thought a Pastor was to set a good example. What a douche bag.
Oh what next?
Well I visited the mall today in Olympia WA. There must have been 10-12 empty spaces. Some of the kiosks in the center were empty as well. There were some people there shopping on Wed night but it felt more deserted than a hive of shopping activity.
My recent trip into down town Tacoma and down town Seattle are showing some hits from the economy. For lease signs within two city blocks covered about 8 vacant retail spots.
It seems that the Seattle area has been spared the brunt of the slow down. We were about 18 months behind the curve and I wonder if we are not yet feeling the full weight of the recession here. Many people in my industry are talking like things are looking up. But I have my doubts. It will be an interesting year. I am not quite ready to move to the family farm but that is always an option.
Whirled Peas!
My recent trip into down town Tacoma and down town Seattle are showing some hits from the economy. For lease signs within two city blocks covered about 8 vacant retail spots.
It seems that the Seattle area has been spared the brunt of the slow down. We were about 18 months behind the curve and I wonder if we are not yet feeling the full weight of the recession here. Many people in my industry are talking like things are looking up. But I have my doubts. It will be an interesting year. I am not quite ready to move to the family farm but that is always an option.
Whirled Peas!
Great video.. Please visit feveriam.blogspot.com
Here is a link posted on Mike's Feveriam.blogspot.com
Spread the news.
Spread the news.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Now this was funny. I am a Gemini
What is funny is how close she gets to much of what I have been thinking. Weird. ;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NbmCu49_I0
Friday, April 3, 2009
Not in my house!!!
With all the people that are unemployed (about 8.5% now) and being that the GIVE act will expand Americor to 250,000, is it interesting that those that will be working for Americor my not have any other options for employment? Sound like a great recruitment poster. "Unemployed? Come work for Americor".
Creepy
Avian Flu and Vaccine Mix up. Ooops.
Accident? We are so screwed. I wonder at what point does someone "volunteer" to be a carrier. It would be easy to inject someone with Avian Flu, Small Pox or something worse and then get on a plane for a nice ride with lots of people. Or ride a crowded subway, go to a sports game. (SO)
Vaccines infected with deadly avian flu virus
12 March 2009
A large consignment of seasonal flu vaccine, which was due to be circulated to 18 European countries, has been infected with deadly live avian flu virus. Had the contamination not been detected, the vaccines may have started an avian flu pandemic, killing hundreds of thousands of people.
The World Health Organization is carrying out investigations at the Austrian research facility of Baxter International, the pharmaceutical company, where the contamination happened. Baxter has confirmed that the consignment contained live H5N1 virus, which causes avian flu.
A researcher in the Czech Republic discovered the lethal contamination when laboratory ferrets that he had injected with the H3N2 flu vaccine suddenly died. The H5N1 virus becomes lethal as an injection only when it is mixed with H3N2, a process known as reassortment.
The WHO investigation team says it doesn’t have evidence to suggest that Baxter had deliberately reassorted the two viruses, but “what remains unanswered are the circumstances surrounding the incident in the Baxter facility,” a WHO official said.
Despite dire warnings from health officials, no avian flu pandemic has occurred as human-to-human infection hasn’t happened. So far, several hundred people have died after catching the virus from poultry, although governments have warned that millions would die if people could infect each other.
Baxter is currently working on a new type of avian flu vaccine, called Celvapan, which is based on cell culture technology.
The technology, which is being developed at Baxter’s research facility in the Czech Republic, by-passes the conventional process where a virus is incubated in chicken eggs. Instead, Baxter is working with the ‘native’ virus that does not need to be modified.
Last year the vaccine passed the first two phases of safety trials, and Baxter announced that “Celvapan combines innovative science and breakthrough production technology with the aim of protecting people against an H5N1 pandemic flu infection.”
(Sources: Toronto Sun, February 27, 2009; New England Journal of Medicine, 2008; 358: 2573-84).
Gerald Celente is Right
Costco closes it's Costco Home centers in Tempe AZ and in Kirkland WA.
There are two more giant buildings that are going to add to the Home Depot Expos that closed as well.
Maybe we can turn them into homeless shelters? Just an idea.
WSJ article link: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090402-702092.html
There are two more giant buildings that are going to add to the Home Depot Expos that closed as well.
Maybe we can turn them into homeless shelters? Just an idea.
WSJ article link: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090402-702092.html
Ouch Toyota and Honda now
I was just sent this article. HHHmmmm.
This is from Bloomberg.com
Toyota Borrows From Japan-Owned Bank to Finance U.S. Car Sales
Share | Email | Print | A A A
By Doron Levin and Naoko Fujimura
April 3 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. borrowed from a Japan-owned bank in the first quarter to finance U.S. car sales as private investors demanded up to 50 percent more interest for the company’s debt.
“Our higher cost of funds shocked us,” following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September, George Borst, chief executive officer of Toyota Financial Services- America in Torrance, California, said yesterday. “We’ve been turning over rocks everywhere” to find capital to lend to buyers of Toyota, Scion and Lexus automobiles in the U.S.
Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker, is offering near- record incentives to lure consumers as demand plunges. The company posted better-than-expected sales in the U.S. last month in part because it increased incentives per vehicle by 88 percent from a year ago, according to Edmunds.com.
“Toyota needed the loan as it’s not making money in the U.S.,” said Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments Ltd. in Tokyo, which manages $28 billion. “This will make it easier for other carmakers to ask for government aid.”
The carmaker’s finance arm borrowed an undisclosed amount from the bank, Borst said. Honda Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. have said they also plan to apply for loans from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, a government-controlled bank. Both carmakers forecast losses for the quarter ended March 31.
Toyota’s Loss
Toyota jumped 7.3 percent to 3,700 yen at the 3 p.m. close in Tokyo, after the Japanese currency weakened to 100 against the dollar for the first time in five months. Honda added 1.7 percent, and Mazda rose 3.8 percent.
Toyota has forecast a loss of 350 billion yen ($3.5 billion) for the year ended March 31 and it may post a loss of 224 billion yen in the current fiscal year, according to the median of 20 analyst estimates, compiled by Bloomberg.
The carmaker lost the top credit rating from both Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services in February. Moody’s cut Toyota to Aa1 from Aaa and S&P lowered the carmaker to AA+ from AAA.
Denso Corp. the world’s largest listed carparts maker and an affiliate of Toyota, had its credit rating cut to Aa2 from Aa1 by Moody’s today. The partsmaker said it will have a loss for the year ended March 31 as Toyota slashed production.
The carmaker’s sales in the U.S. plunged 39 percent last month. Still, that was less than the 41 percent drop forecast by analysts as the company offered an average of $1,600 in incentives on each model. In Japan, Toyota’s sales dropped 32 percent in March.
Bond Yields
Toyota sold 80 billion yen in 10-year bonds priced to yield 2.012 percent in February. That compares with 150 billion yen of 10-year bonds sold in August 2002, priced to yield 1.337 percent. The extra yield over government bonds of similar maturity that investors demand to own the company’s 50 billion yen bond due in March 2012 surged to 213 basis points yesterday, up from 54 basis points on Oct. 31, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
On March 3 Japanese media reported that Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, was negotiating a five-year loan of about $2 billion from JBIC. Toyota executives denied that the loan constituted a government “bailout.”
Last year the carmaker borrowed from 330 financial institutions worldwide in 18 currencies, Toyota’s Borst said.
The U.S. arm of Toyota Financial Services Corp. borrowed the equivalent of $25 billion in 2008 for financing of cars and trucks, Borst said. He declined to say how much Toyota plans to borrow this year.
This is from Bloomberg.com
Toyota Borrows From Japan-Owned Bank to Finance U.S. Car Sales
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By Doron Levin and Naoko Fujimura
April 3 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. borrowed from a Japan-owned bank in the first quarter to finance U.S. car sales as private investors demanded up to 50 percent more interest for the company’s debt.
“Our higher cost of funds shocked us,” following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September, George Borst, chief executive officer of Toyota Financial Services- America in Torrance, California, said yesterday. “We’ve been turning over rocks everywhere” to find capital to lend to buyers of Toyota, Scion and Lexus automobiles in the U.S.
Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker, is offering near- record incentives to lure consumers as demand plunges. The company posted better-than-expected sales in the U.S. last month in part because it increased incentives per vehicle by 88 percent from a year ago, according to Edmunds.com.
“Toyota needed the loan as it’s not making money in the U.S.,” said Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments Ltd. in Tokyo, which manages $28 billion. “This will make it easier for other carmakers to ask for government aid.”
The carmaker’s finance arm borrowed an undisclosed amount from the bank, Borst said. Honda Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. have said they also plan to apply for loans from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, a government-controlled bank. Both carmakers forecast losses for the quarter ended March 31.
Toyota’s Loss
Toyota jumped 7.3 percent to 3,700 yen at the 3 p.m. close in Tokyo, after the Japanese currency weakened to 100 against the dollar for the first time in five months. Honda added 1.7 percent, and Mazda rose 3.8 percent.
Toyota has forecast a loss of 350 billion yen ($3.5 billion) for the year ended March 31 and it may post a loss of 224 billion yen in the current fiscal year, according to the median of 20 analyst estimates, compiled by Bloomberg.
The carmaker lost the top credit rating from both Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services in February. Moody’s cut Toyota to Aa1 from Aaa and S&P lowered the carmaker to AA+ from AAA.
Denso Corp. the world’s largest listed carparts maker and an affiliate of Toyota, had its credit rating cut to Aa2 from Aa1 by Moody’s today. The partsmaker said it will have a loss for the year ended March 31 as Toyota slashed production.
The carmaker’s sales in the U.S. plunged 39 percent last month. Still, that was less than the 41 percent drop forecast by analysts as the company offered an average of $1,600 in incentives on each model. In Japan, Toyota’s sales dropped 32 percent in March.
Bond Yields
Toyota sold 80 billion yen in 10-year bonds priced to yield 2.012 percent in February. That compares with 150 billion yen of 10-year bonds sold in August 2002, priced to yield 1.337 percent. The extra yield over government bonds of similar maturity that investors demand to own the company’s 50 billion yen bond due in March 2012 surged to 213 basis points yesterday, up from 54 basis points on Oct. 31, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
On March 3 Japanese media reported that Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, was negotiating a five-year loan of about $2 billion from JBIC. Toyota executives denied that the loan constituted a government “bailout.”
Last year the carmaker borrowed from 330 financial institutions worldwide in 18 currencies, Toyota’s Borst said.
The U.S. arm of Toyota Financial Services Corp. borrowed the equivalent of $25 billion in 2008 for financing of cars and trucks, Borst said. He declined to say how much Toyota plans to borrow this year.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Two great blogs to follow.
Mike, Feveriam on Youtube and at www.feveriam.wordpress.com Fantastic commentator.
Todd, www.americansolutionsforum.com a friend of mine. Deep thinker. And he's a great guy too.
SO
Todd, www.americansolutionsforum.com a friend of mine. Deep thinker. And he's a great guy too.
SO
Frodo Baggins spotted in London G20 Protests
You can believe it or not. But pictures don't lie. See for yourself.
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