New Report Suggests That Barack Obama Is A CIA Creation

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10 Statist Myths Debunked

1.) Taxes help grow the economy.

Bloomberg:

In a study of 44 large fiscal adjustments in 24 advanced economies since 1975, Broadbent and Daly discovered that reducing expenditures by 1 percentage point a year boosted average annual growth by 0.6 percentage point. Raising the ratio of taxes to GDP by the same margin cut growth by an average 0.9 percentage point.

Wall Street Journal:

In addition to Washington, the states without an income tax are Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming. Combined they had an average 18.2% growth rate in jobs over the past decade, more than twice the 8.4% job growth of the nine states with the highest income tax rates.

2.) Privatization doesn’t work.

World Bank:

A detailed and rigorous Bank examination of 12 privatizations in four countries found that divestiture was good for the economy as a whole--and led to higher productivity and faster growth in all but one case. […]The Chilean telephone company doubled its capacity in the four years after sale. […]Another study found that 41 firms privatized by public offerings in 15 countries […]increased returns on sales, assets, and equity, raised internal efficiency, improved their capital structure, and increased capital expenditures. They also expanded their workforces by small margins.

3.) The government is needed to build roads.

How Capitalism Saved America by Thomas DiLorenzo:

Louisiana began subsidizing railroads before Illinois and most other states (in 1833) and consequently was on of the first states to forbid state aid for internal improvements (in 1845). The failures of government-subsidized internal improvements were so pronounced that by 1860 Missouri and Massachusetts were the only two states in the union that had not yet amended their constitutions to prohibit internal improvement subsidies. Missouri finally got around to it in 1875.

4.) The Americans with Disabilities Act has primarily helped the disabled.

Cato:

Table 1 compares changes in the employment rates of disabled and nondisabled men before and after enactment of ADA. Employment of men with disabilities fell by 10.9 percentage points following the enactment of ADA, while employment of nondisabled men fell by 3.1 percentage points. Thus, ADA reduced the employment of disabled men by 7.8 percentage points.

5.) Licensing is good for the economy.

Econ Journal Watch:

[A] 2006 Gallup survey found that 29 percent of the workforce was required to hold a license from a government agency. […]Dorsey (1983, 171) finds that “licensing regulations exclude less educated and minority workers more than proportionally.” […]Kleiner and Krueger (2008) find that licensing is associated with a 15 percent wage premium.

6.) To reduce crime, people should not have fire arms.

National Review:

In the five years before Washington's ban in 1976, the murder rate fell from 37 to 27 per 100,000. In the five years after it went into effect, the murder rate rose back up to 35. […]Chicago's murder rate fell from 27 to 22 per 100,000 in the five years before the law and then rose slightly to 23. […]Chicago's murder rate fell from being 8.1 times greater than its neighbors in 1977 to 5.5 times in 1982, and then went way up to 12 times greater in 1987.

7.) The police state is good for you.

Harpers:

The FBI issues roughly 50,000 [National Security Letters] a year, and the Justice Department’s own internal review in 2007 concluded that many of them were issued abusively, skirting the law and internal rules. The idea is simple: the device is something like a subpoena, though it doesn’t require approval of a judge to issue.

8.) FDR saved us from the Great Depression

Wall Street Journal:

The economic fundamentals that drive all expansions were very favorable during the New Deal. Productivity grew very rapidly after 1933, the price level was stable, real interest rates were low, and liquidity was plentiful. […]So what stopped a blockbuster recovery from ever starting? The New Deal. […]The most damaging policies were those at the heart of the recovery plan, including The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA). […]The NIRA covered over 500 industries, ranging from autos and steel, to ladies hosiery and poultry production. Each industry created a code of "fair competition" which spelled out what producers could and could not do, and which were designed to eliminate "excessive competition" that FDR believed to be the source of the Depression. […]We have calculated that manufacturing wages were as much as 25% above the level that would have prevailed without the New Deal.

9. “Obamacare” covers pre-existing conditions

Firedog Lake:

Access to the “high risk pool” is limited and the pool is underfunded. It will cover few people, and will run out of money in 2011 or 2012. Only those who have been uninsured for more than six months will qualify for the high risk pool. Only 0.7% of those without insurance now will get coverage, and the CMS report estimates it will run out of funding by 2011 or 2012.

Washington Post:

18 states have officially declined to participate in the new high risk pools, which offers a subsidized insurance option to those with pre-existing conditions.

10. Government workers have it rough.

NY Post:

From January 2008 to January 2010, private-sector jobs plunged from 115.5 million to 106.8 million. But the number of federal, state and local public employees climbed up a tick, from 22.3 million to 22.4 million. […]In 2009, […]compensation for the average federal civilian worker totaled $123,049 including benefits valued at $41,791. That's more than twice what the average private-sector employee earned -- only $61,051, including benefits.

Genetic Modified Foods - Senate Bill S510

"But we realize that with any new and powerful technology with unknown, and to some degree unknowable - by definition - effects, then there necessarily will be an appropriate level at least, and maybe even more than that, of public debate and public interest." Bob Shapiro, Chief Executive of Monsanto Genetic Modified Foods - Senate Bill S510 If you are what you eat, we are all in deep trouble. What constitutes healthy food is a debate that can encompass different viewpoints. In spite of this, control of the food chain is a concern that crosses all ideological perspectives. The most essential of all human rights is the effective ability of access and ingestion of nutrients that are necessary to sustain life. Forced feeding of toxicants, as the only foodstuff available to the masses, is a true crime against humanity. Withholding safe food from the public allows for the gluttony of elites. These masters of the universe immunize themselves by hording nontoxic provisions as they ride a black horse. The Apocalypse of a food crisis is not an accident. The GMO designer cuisine is meant to supply a poisonous menu, until the final collective culling of the herd, is ready for the planet. Some background on the nature of our current food system is useful. View two separate videos by the same title Food, Inc and Food, Inc. Food, Inc Food, Inc. Watch the full episode. See more NOW on PBS. Genetically Modified Organisms are really a brave new world. The practice of patenting laboratory biological genetics provides sustenance for the horror of a Frankenstein village. Rady Ananda warns, "In the US, GMOs were secretly foisted on the public in the mid-1990s, and only now is the US Supreme Court addressing the scourge. In June, the high court upheld partial deregulation of GM alfalfa, which permits limited planting while the USDA prepares an Environmental Impact Statement. Natural and organic alfalfa supply is threatened by the very real potential of GM contamination. This would destroy the organic meat and dairy industry". Why should folks care about organic agriculture when we live in an age of chemical wonders? The Glyphosate ingredient in Roundup is a miracle remedy for those nasty weeds. So what’s the big deal? F. William Engdahl thinks there is a sinister link to the magic seeds in his book, "Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation, GMO crops and patented seeds were developed in the 1970’s with significant financial support from the pro-eugenics Rockefeller Foundation, by what were essentially chemical companies—Monsanto Chemicals, DuPont and Dow Chemicals. All three were involved in the scandal of the highly toxic Agent Orange used in Vietnam, as well as Dioxin in the 1970’s, and lied to cover up the true damage to its own employees as well as to civilian and military populations exposed. Their patented GMO seeds were seen as a clever way to force increased purchase of their agricultural chemicals such as Roundup. Farmers must sign a legal contract with Monsanto in which it stipulates that only Monsanto Roundup pesticide may be used. Farmers are thus trapped both in buying new seeds from Monsanto each harvest and buying the toxic glyphosate". Neil Foster in GM ‘Foods’ Now Legal, goes much further. "The likes of Monsanto can well afford to take on any government in a legal challenge because they have more than enough resources to do so whereas governments, particularly in the current and what will be increasingly dire financial circumstances, will have no possibility of stopping these masters of genocide getting their evil ways. Let’s be clear here, GM foods modify YOU! They have been PROVEN to cause numerous non-fatal and FATAL diseases including various forms of CANCER and of course the favourite effect on human beings of these perpetrators of eugenics – STERILITY! I doubt people reading this are aware of the FACT that even the staff at Monsanto’s own factories refuse to eat their own products. It is also a fact that the British Parliament, The US Congress, The German Parliament and I’m sure the EU Parliament and others DO NOT eat this garbage." WOW, this begins to look like these captivating seeds are meant for certain groups, while the elites take great pains to protect their own digestive systems. If one was a conspiracy nut, you might think there is an "end of the world" plan aimed at the marginal consuming feeders that pollute the atmosphere with their excess CO2 discharges. It sure is reassuring that preparations are under way to harbor a renewal kick-start if these GMO seeds mutate into neuter germination mode. The cold storage hibernation of a "Doomsday Seed Vault" must be the insurance that protects any good farmer who plows their back forty. "In Svalbard, the future world’s most secure seed repository will be guarded by the policemen of the GMO Green Revolution--the Rockefeller and Gates Foundations, Syngenta, DuPont and CGIAR. Plant breeders and researchers are the major users of gene banks. Today’s largest plant breeders are Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta and Dow Chemical, the global plant-patenting GMO giants. Since early in 2007 Monsanto holds world patent rights together with the United States Government for plant so-called ‘Terminator’ or Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURT). Terminator is an ominous technology by which a patented commercial seed commits ‘suicide’ after one harvest. Control by private seed companies is total". Don’t worry, food is cheap and only the most backward starve in a world of plenty. Don’t give it a second thought, "suicide seeds" can be hedged with a Goldman Sachs derivative. Have faith, science will keep the food wagon rolling with genetic modification and nanotechnology. "Artificial meat grown in vats may be needed if the 9 billion people expected to be alive in 2050 are to be adequately fed without destroying the earth, some of the world's leading scientists report today". See, seeds are not necessary when you can grow Filet Mignon in a test tube. Monsanto The Genetic Conspiracy FoodWars Police Raid Organic Foods NWO Mafia Codex Alimentarius Depopulation Agenda Transdehumanism If you still have doubts, these two YouTube’s will charm your pallet and calm your stomach - Monsanto The Genetic Conspiracy and FoodWars Police Raid Organic Foods NWO Mafia Codex Alimentarius Depopulation Agenda Transdehumanism. Looks like folks need to clear off their "green thumbs" and start their own victory gardens. In the global gulag, common sense solutions usually meet with preemptive resistance. You can depend on the overseers to interject a government paradigm to keep their hand in the corporate agriculture friendly environment. The summary of S. 510: FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, ensures that a factory "Animal Farm" is on the horizon for your local area. Food Freedom warns about the consequences from this bill. 1. It puts all US food and all US farms under Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, in the event of contamination or an ill-defined emergency. 2. It would end US sovereignty over its own food supply by insisting on compliance with the WTO, thus threatening national security. 3. It would allow the government, under Maritime Law, to define the introduction of any food into commerce (even direct sales between individuals) as smuggling into “the United States.” 4. It imposes Codex Alimentarius on the US, a global system of control over food. 5. It would remove the right to clean, store and thus own seed in the US, putting control of seeds in the hands of Monsanto and other multinationals, threatening US security. 6. It includes NAIS, an animal traceability program that threatens all small farmers and ranchers raising animals. 7. It extends a failed and destructive HACCP to all food, thus threatening to do to all local food production and farming what HACCP did to meat production – put it in corporate hands and worsen food safety. 8. It deconstructs what is left of the American economy. 9. It would allow the government to mandate antibiotics, hormones, slaughterhouse waste, pesticides and GMOs. 10. It uses food crimes as the entry into police state power and control. The final conclusion: “It removes fundamental constitutional protections from all citizens in the country, making them subject to a corporate tribunal with unlimited power and penalties, and without judicial review”. Who benefits from such legislation? How can this kind of government intrusion advance and protect a reliable and safe food supply? The answer to the first question is obvious. Natural Solutions Foundation provides the argument. "The Uber-Cartel, Big Pharma, Big Agribiz, Big Chema, Big Biotech and Big Medica, which are all the same industry, at base, is planning to take away the right of speech questioning or criticizing GMO food in India, just as the FDA has tried so hard to take away our right to know what food and food components can do for us, gagging free speech. What happens in one country will be globalized rapidly. Devious and dangerous laws and regulations are typically enacted in a vulnerable country, then quickly globalized rapidly to "HARMonize" through the WTO, WHO, UN and other unelected non-representational bodies whose policies are set by the Uber-Cartel, not by us". The second query is even clearer. S. 510 will destroy farming, our most basic of all endeavors. Begging government for crumbs is your future unless you defy such a blatant attack on your human right to feed yourself. Isn’t this the ultimate non-partisan united undertaking imaginable? Only a crazed elite committed to killing off the masses could defend a GMO malnourishment system.

Send in the clowns: More pointless talks with Israel?

The Palestinians’ champion – their White Knight – is preparing to ride forth next week and do battle at the negotiating table with the racist regime’s Black Knight and his minder, the Great Satan.

The rules of chivalry don’t apply, so the outcome is not in doubt.

However, the White Knight is not quite as white or brave as he seems. Eager to do his lord’s bidding, Mahmoud Abbas is a willing fall guy. On this occasion Obama has imperiously snapped his fingers and announced he wants direct talks started “well before” the Black Knight (aka Israeli prime minister Netanyahu) ends the partial freeze on illegal settlements in a month’s time.

And, by the way, US mid-term elections are coming up in two months’ time and Obama has to look good.

So Abbas jumped.

And Abbas is at least 18 months past the pack-your-bags date when he should have stepped down from his presidential position. He has twice unilaterally extended his stay and called off scheduled elections. He has no popular mandate and continues to blot the Palestinian escutcheon, staining the only democracy in the Middle East (Israel being altogether something else: an ethnocracy).

In the excitement everyone has forgotten that Hamas are the democratically elected power in Palestine even though they have been forced by Abbas and his US-armed gang and their Israeli back-up into confinement in the Gaza Strip. Hamas are not invited to the peace table, so what legitimacy can the encounter possibly have, anyway?

No preconditions except Israel’s

The talks are being held while Israel continues to pound Palestinian civilians in Gaza, maintains the cruel land and sea blockade and murders any unarmed humanitarians sailing to break it, disallows exports, severely restricts travel within the Occupied Territories, carries on with house demolitions, denies access to universities and places of worship, and generally behaves in a brutal and barbaric manner.

Israel has failed to honour earlier peace pledges and gives every indication of wishing only to expand its borders further.

The idea that there can be meaningful talks under these conditions is an insult to the intelligence of the civilized world. Abbas said earlier that he didn’t see much point in talking but he’s been pressured to change his mind.

Netanyahu loudly insists there can be no pre-conditions while busily laying down pre-conditions of his own, in particular ruling out any return by Palestinians to East Jerusalem, which as everyone knows belongs to the Palestinians and is earmarked as their capital, and refusing to extend the temporary halt to settlement building on stolen land.

Palestine, as always, is led by losers. Abbas’s senior negotiator, Saeb Erekat, is described as a newspaper editor, but he doesn’t seem very adept at bringing the Palestinian cause to media attention in the outside world.

His opening shots warn the Israelis that they must choose between “settlements or peace… they cannot have both”. Is this Erekat’s magic bullet for unseating the Black Knight?

Law and justice are not ‘à la carte’

Netanyahu leads a fragile coalition of right wingers and religious nutters. He says that if he were to prolong the moratorium on settlements it could trigger the collapse of his government.

So he must continue in his criminal ways to survive.

To prove his playful sense of humour hasn’t yet deserted him, he goes on to say: “We are coming to the talks with a genuine desire to reach a peace agreement between the two peoples that will protect Israel’s national security interests, foremost of which is security.”

The Palestinians’ national security interests are, and always have been, irrelevant.

Haaretz reports that the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), in one of its wackiest statements to date, has called on the Palestinian Authority to “abandon its longstanding attempts to avoid making difficult choices at the negotiating table and cease incitement against Israel at home and abroad”.

And you’ll die laughing at this bit: “Now it is time for the Palestinians and the Arab States to grasp Israel’s outstretched hand and match the Jewish state’s unyielding commitment to peace with actions of their own.”

Another pro-Israel group, J-Street, claims the talks could be the last opportunity to save the two-state solution. “The window of opportunity for progress is brief and closing. We believe Israel’s future as a Jewish, democratic home, not to mention vital American interests in the region, hang in the balance,” says J-Street’s Vice President for Policy and Strategy, pretending that America’s best interests are geared to the success of Israel’s unlawful and racist expansionism.

From the way America conducts itself internationally, anyone would think that law and justice are some kind of à la carte menu items to be dispensed on a pick-and-choose basis, or not dispensed at all. Or something Americans can send back to the kitchen if their taste buds don’t fancy it.

It is outrageous that Netanyahu should be encouraged to think compliance with the law is optional and in the meantime further concessions can be wrung, under duress, from people the Israelis have oppressed and cheated for 60 years.

The talking’s all done

The talks of course have nothing to do with peace. They are about greed, dominance and more land theft. The plan is to get a weakling Palestinian leader into a corner and arm-twist more concessions from him, until there’s nothing left.

Is this really a good time to bend the knee or tug the forelock to someone as unreliable as Obama or as criminal as Netanyahu?

It is surely an occasion to stand on principle and go over the heads of corrupt meddlers, making a strong Palestinian case anchored firmly in established law and justice so that there is no room to wriggle, and demand that same law and justice from the international community that endorsed it.

It would call for a carefully planned and professionally executed communications campaign to make the world listen, something the Palestinian Authority and the PLO, under Abbas, have fatally neglected.

But Abbas says it’s his “national responsibility” to go along with the talks. Those in Ramallah who dared to disagree were quickly stamped on by his security goons.

Abbas and Erekat belong to the shabby failures of the past. For Palestine the future has to start somewhere. It might as well be here, and now.

America cannot – no, will not – uphold international law or UN resolutions. Like Israelis, the Americans have a cynical disregard for human rights except their own. It goes against all notions of fair play, therefore, to see America acting the host and pretending to be an honest broker.

Abbas should have none of it. If he cannot be persuaded to do the decent thing and go, he at least ought to take the line that the talking’s all done. It was done in the UN. And the UN has treated Israel with gob-smacking generosity at Arab expense, first with its 1947 Partition gift and later by nodding OK to Israel’s territorial gains represented by the Armistice ‘Green Line’. The Israelis should accept this staggering munificence with proper humility, and be content.

Obama would do well to acknowledge that the decisions have already been made. They are enshrined in UN resolutions, in international law, in the Geneva Conventions and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They wait to be implemented by the nations that are party to those solemn undertakings, including the US.

So please, Mr Obama, no more talking. Cut the charade and do your duty.

Earn that peace prize. Or give it back.

Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. For further information please visit www.radiofreepalestine.co.uk

9/11 Was An Inside Job, False Flag Terror and the 9th Anniversary

WTC Building 7 Exposed to One Million New Yorkers

Site around WTC 7 on 9/11

The Intel Hub
By TheAvalonRoundTable

© Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth & © BuildingWhat.org

“Building What?” – Judge Edward Lehner, New York State Supreme Court, upon hearing the words “Building 7”

World Trade Center Building 7 is about to be exposed to One Million New Yorkers. A group of 9/11 family members, relatives, engineering professionals and 9/11 activists (all are well know to the 911 community) are raising funds to finally achieving a TRUE & INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION OF 911.

Dear Friends, We are pleased and tremendously excited to share this groundbreaking TV ad with you for the first time. We hope, with your help, to be able to show it to one million New Yorkers one month from now. Please go to http://www.BuildingWhat.org to watch the ad and please donate generously. Every $750 we raise is enough for another spot to reach another 10,000 people. Your donation will be fully tax-deductible. 5% of it will go to the WTC Rescuers Foundation. And 5% of it will be matched by another generous donor. Our strategy for buying spots is guided by two principles. Firstly, showing it to audiences who will respond productively and influence the public discussion, such as young people, academics, journalists and the political class. And secondly, repetition! The ad will undergo one final edit before we send it off, so we welcome your comments over the next two weeks. We’re all in this together! Very truly yours, Manny Badillo, Nephew of Thomas Joseph Sgroi David Chandler, International Center of 9/11 Studies Richard Gage, Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth David Ray Griffin, Religious Leaders for 9/11 Truth Niels Harrit, Coauthor of the WTC Nanothermite Study Karen Johnson, Political Leaders for 9/11 Truth Erik Lawyer, Firefighters for 9/11 Truth Bob McIlvaine, Father of Bobby McIlvaine JF Ranger, World for 9/11 Truth Atmoh, ReOpen911.info Kevin Ryan, Coeditor of the Journal of 9/11 Studies Ted Tilton Jr. and Justin Keogh, 911Blogger.com William Veale, Lawyers for 9/11 Truth Ted Walter, NYC CAN Excerpted from the new site under construction (complete September 1, 2010) – Donations are Tax Deductable Mail-in-Form Donations

World Trade Center Building 7 was a 47-story skyscraper. It collapsed on 9/11/2001 at 5:20 pm. Most people have yet to learn about this incredible collapse. Support our campaign and help expose the collapse of Building 7 to millions of people.

Additional Facts & Information from Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth

1266 architectural and engineering professionals
and 9143 other supporters including A&E students
have signed the petition demanding of Congress
a truly independent investigation.

The petition is open to everyone.

WTC Building #7, a 47-story high-rise not hit by an airplane, exhibited all the characteristics of classic controlled demolition with explosives:

1. Rapid onset of “collapse”

2. Sounds of explosions at ground floor – a second before the building’s destruction

3. Symmetrical “structural failure” — through the path of greatest resistance — at free-fall acceleration

4. Imploded, collapsing completely, and landed in its own footprint

5. Massive volume of expanding pyroclastic dust clouds

6. Expert corroboration from the top European Controlled Demolition professional

7. Fore-knowledge of “collapse” by media, NYPD, FDNY

In the the aftermath of WTC7′s destruction, strong evidence of demolition using incendary devices was discovered:

8. FEMA finds rapid oxidation and intergranular melting on structural steel samples

9. Several tons of molten metal reported by numerous highly-qualified witnesses

10. Chemical signature of thermite (high tech incendiary) found in solidified molten metal, and dust samples

America Facing Depression And Bankruptcy

Long-time economic, political and market analyst Bob Chapman publishes the International Forecaster, offering incisive analysis absent through mainstream sources, especially important now given America's deepening economic crisis getting harder to conceal as evidence mounts.

His August 25 issue says the following:

"Twenty countries (including America) are headed into bankruptcy and more will follow. That brings up the subject of state debt in the US. America has been in an inflationary depression for 18 months. States have been cutting back for two years," but still face huge budget gaps required to be closed....2011 will be a terrible year (with) 80% of states expect(ing) deficits of more than $200 billion. 2012 looks even worse." Most worrisome, "there is no recovery and there never has been....the US economy and financial system is comatose." The worst is yet to come and will hit hard on arrival.

On August 24, economist David Rosenberg said, "Now (I'll) tell you why this is a depression, and not just some garden-variety recession," what he's been repeating for months unlike few others, corporate analysts claiming the fall 2007 downturn "ended sometime last year." Not so, it's deepened, growing evidence providing more clarity.

Offering a historical perspective, Rosenberg said the Great Depression wasn't marked by declining GDP each quarter. The 1929 - 33 recession lasted four years, followed by recovery and another "deep downturn" in 1937 - 38.

During the first one, "there were no fewer than six - six! - quarterly bounces in GDP data," averaging 8% at an annual rate, accompanied by sharp market increases, then declines confirming false positives. So "guess what? We may be reliving history (now). If you're keeping score, we have recorded four quarterly advances in real GDP," averaging only 3%. The late 1930s reversal showed "how fragile the post-bubble recovery really was," a faux one again repeated in a weaker economy now than then, one headed for serious trouble ahead, harming millions more Americans as a result.

The Fed cut interest rates to near zero with no effect, at best buying time, resolving nothing. "Then the Fed tripled the size of its balance sheet - again with little sustained impetus to a broken financial system."

Weeks back, then confirmed with new data, Rosenberg stressed weakness, numerous indicators turning down, including production, retail sales, consumer confidence, and housing, a bellwether industry impacting the entire economy. New reports show it's collapsing, some readings to record lows, others disturbingly weak throughout the country.

July existing home sales dropped 25.5%, the largest monthly decline since records began in 1968, bringing annualized sales back to 1995 levels, and signaling worse trouble ahead. Other housing data confirm the malaise, including new home sales, housing starts and permits.

As worrisome were increasing layoffs and first-time unemployment claims hitting 500,000, flashing red for trouble nearly three years after the initial downturn, combined with a near-22% unemployment rate, not the bogus 9.5% headline number, the 1980 calculation reengineered to conceal weakness like all other fake economic data, putting lipstick on an economy, increasingly looking and smelling more like a pig, a sick one.

According to Rosenberg, "You know you are in a depression when:

-- "Congress (extends) jobless benefits seven times (in the past two years) when almost half (of those) unemployed have been looking for at least a half year;"

-- the adult male unemployment rate (25 - 54 years) "hit a post-WW II (high and still tops) the 1982 peak," the worst then since the Great Depression;

-- "youth unemployment is stuck near 25%," and for inner-city black youths it's 80% or higher; "these developments will have profound long-term consequences - social, economic and political;"

-- the depression's fiscal costs keep mounting, the federal deficit soaring with no end to it in sight;

-- for over a year into a supposed recovery, the Fed still contemplates new ways to stimulate growth, its tool, of course, printing money (funny money, or as one analyst calls it, "toilet paper") and quantitative easing, compounding the deficit, or the equivalent of throwing fuel on a fire instead of monetary and fiscal sanity plus sound economy policies to extinguish it;

-- after two years of record trillion dollar plus deficits to kick-start the economy, interest rates are shockingly low, flashing weakness, not strength; to wit, on August 24, the 5-year note was 1.36%, 7-year at $1.95%, 10-year at 2.50%, and 30 year at 3.57%; as well as 30-year fixed mortgage rates at record lows below 4.5% (4.42% on August 24), despite "no fewer than eight (government) programs to put a floor under the housing market;" we're in big trouble "when (Washington) can expend so many resources (on) one sector" in vain;

-- the FDIC keeps shuttering more banks; again, the carnage keeps spreading, yet most economists cling tenaciously an economic recovery theme, at most hit by a soft patch; Rosenberg's response - "Some recovery (when) the private credit market is basically defunct....what replaced it was rampant government intervention (buying time) by trying to (put) a floor under the economy;" once it stops, and it will, they'll be no hiding the dire truth, and no end of pain for growing millions.

The Worst Is Yet to Come

Financial expert and investor safety advocate Martin Weiss began warning about a major economic decline long before it began and keeps at it, citing evidence most analysts downplay or ignore, including:

-- America's worst ever housing depression showing no signs of abating; since January 2006, housing starts alone have plunged from 2.3 million annually to a recent 477,000 low that may not yet reflect a bottom because demand is so weak for this bellwether industry;

-- record long-term unemployment, its worst since first officially tabulated over 60 years ago; and

-- "the most chronic credit squeeze ever recorded....suffer(ing) its deepest plunge since WW II."

As a result, he sees deepening economic trouble ahead, no matter what steps the administration, Congress or the Fed undertake. He expects little more stimulus, just another futile central bank attempt to print money (lots of it) to buy time. "These paper dollars will not create real prosperity," just an illusory, "temporary, false prosperity," but none at all for most people, hung out to dry on their own.

He also expects a sovereign debt crisis to hammer Europe and the US, saying America's plight exceeds the dire situation of PIIGS countries (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain), citing the Bank of International Settlements (the central bank of central bankers) saying US debt will hit 400% of GDP, more than triple Greece's burden at 129% that plunged the country into (undeclared) bankruptcy. Indeed the worst for America is yet to come..

America Is Already Bankrupt

Boston University Economics Professor Laurence Kotlikoff explains it in his August 10 article, titled "US Is Bankrupt and We Don't Even Know It," saying:

"Let's get real. The US is bankrupt. Neither spending more nor taxing less will help the country pay its bills." What's needed, he says, is reengineering the economy by "radically simplify(ing) its tax, healthcare, retirement and financial systems...." Revitalization depends on it with unfunded liabilities topping $110 trillion and growing. Even the IMF is worried, saying "closing (America's) fiscal gap requires a permanent annual fiscal adjustment equal to about 14 percent of US GDP," meaning, of course, from working households, not corporate interests or national security, the most glaring areas needing reform.

The fiscal gap represents "the difference between projected spending (including debt service) and projected revenue in all future years. (It's) the government's credit-card bill and each year's 14 percent GDP is the interest on that bill."

When it's not paid, it increases the balance owed. And each trillion the Fed prints bailing out bankers compounds it. Make them pay, not the public they robbed, starting with shutting them down, breaking them up, seizing their assets, and nationalizing them for the collective good.

Kotlikoff is scary saying "Uncle Sam's Ponzi scheme will stop, (perhaps) in a very nasty manner," citing three possibilities:

(1) massive benefit cuts on retirees;

(2) huge tax increases hitting working Americans hardest, and/or

(3) printing vast amounts of money ad infinitum until debt overload crashes the economy eventually.

Calling America "Worse than Greece," he believes "Most likely we will see a combination of all three responses with dramatic increases in poverty, tax(es), interest rates and consumer prices," the path we're on heading us for the worst of all possible worlds.

Based on the latest Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data, he calculates a $202 trillion fiscal gap - "more than 15 times the official debt" because Congress "label(s) most of its liabilities 'unofficial' to keep them off the books, (out of sight) and far in the future" to concern other officials, not them. Labeling, of course, isn't fixing. It's just concealing unpleasant realities, letting others, not them, face the music in out years.

Current federal revenue totals $14.9% of GDP, the IMF saying that closing it requires "an immediate and permanent doubling of our personal-income, corporate and federal taxes as well as the payroll levy set down in the Federal Insurance Contribution Act."

Such policy would produce a 5% surplus this year, the IMF prescribing ad infinitum fiscal austerity, saying delay will make it tougher ahead. "Is the IMF bonkers?" Not at all, just preferential, wanting workers, not special interests hit hardest, the way it's raped and mauled economies for years, serving capital, not people, now aiming at America, the biggest plum of all ripe for plucking with millions of vulnerable households, easy pickings for the powerful, harming, not relieving their needs by:

-- cutting wages and benefits;

-- destroying, not creating jobs; privatizing everything for private gain; and

-- turning America into Guatemala, a corporatist's dream.

Indeed let's get real. Bad policy begets bad results, and bad solutions makes it worse. For sure, America is "broke and can no longer afford no-pain, all-gain 'solutions.' "

It needs responsible ones, too many to list, but here's a few:

-- end imperial wars and a bloated defense budget;

-- reinvent government to make it responsive to public needs and democratic values;

-- make offenders pay most, starting with Wall Street, defense contractors, Big Oil, Big Pharma, Agribusiness, and other corporate predators profiting at public expense for decades;

-- make now the time for payback, assuring their victims fair and equitable reimbursements;

-- reinvigorate industrial America;

-- end Wall Street's financial chokehold;

-- return money creation power to Congress as the Constitution mandates;

-- encourage publicly-owned state banks like North Dakota's, making it prosperous when most states are debt-strapped and faltering;

-- create full-time, good-paying jobs with benefits; don't destroy them;

-- bring back those offshored;

-- protect homeowners from foreclosure;

-- re-institute progressive taxes, including a Tobin tax (perhaps 1%) on all speculative financial transactions, a millionaire's/Wall Street bank levy generating a huge windfall, enough to smack if not close the budget gap, making those most able pay; for example, the Bank for International Settlements estimated annual 2008 global over-the-counter derivatives trading at $743 trillion; a 1% tax would yield $7.43 trillion, and if taxes curbed speculation, the take would still be enormous;

-- dismantle corporate predators;

-- think small and local, not big and global;

-- reinstitute financial, environmental, and other consumer-friendly regulations;

-- get money out of politics;

-- end the two-party monopoly;

-- institutionalize a free, open, fair media and Internet;

-- assure equitable social benefits for all, including universal, single-payer health care, government-supported public and higher education, and more; and

-- reinvigorate an eroding democracy before it's too late to matter.

Responsible policies, all of the above and more, will reinvigorate America. The unsustainable fiscal crisis is reason enough to do it.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.