Trial of ex-Goldman trader about ‘Wall Street greed’

The trial of former Goldman Sachs bond trader Fabrice Tourre was about “Wall Street greed,” a lawyer for the US Securities and Exchange Commission said as the trial began yesterday.
The SEC accuses Mr Tourre of misleading investors in a mortgage investment calledAbacus 2007-AC1 by not telling them that a hedge fund was involved in selecting the underlying assets and betting against it.
Matthew Martens, a lawyer for the SEC, told the jury the deal Mr Tourre put together was “secretly designed to maximize the potential it would fail” to the benefit of the hedge fund, which made about $1 billion.

“In the end, Wall Street greed drove Mr Tourre to lie and deceive,” Mr Martens said.
But Pamela Chepiga, a lawyer for Mr Tourre, countered that the SEC was trying to turn her client into a “scapegoat.”
“This is not a case about whether you approve or disapprove of Wall Street,” she said.
The trial, scheduled to last three weeks, stems from a lawsuit the SEC filed against Goldman Sachs and Mr Tourre in 2010.
Mr Tourre, who is no longer with Goldman and is earning a doctorate in economics at the University of Chicago, is on trial alone after Goldman agreed to pay a $550 million settlement in July 2010.
Mr Tourre, wearing a black suit and orange tie, sat with his counsel as the lawyers made their opening arguments. He did not speak during yesterday’s proceedings, although he is expected to testify later in the trial.
The SEC contends Mr Tourre, at the time a vice president at Goldman, failed to disclose that Paulson & Company , the hedge fund run by billionaire John Paulson, was involved in picking mortgage securities tied to the Abacus investment and that it was also shorting, or betting against, it.
Mr Martens said Mr Tourre, the principal Goldman employee involved in the Abacus deal, had a duty to be truthful with investors. Instead, he hid “critical information” in order to get them to buy in.
Mr Tourre also misled ACA Capital Holdings , a third-party firm ostensibly brought in to select the securities included in the CDO, into believing that Paulson was an equity investor in Abacus rather than taking a short position, Mr Martens said.
The SEC contends ACA would not have participated had it known Paulson was betting against the investment. A different firm decided not to participate as ACA’s portfolio selection agent when Mr Tourre told it Paulson was going short, Mr Martens said.
“His solution was trickery and half-truths,” he said. “His solution was securities fraud.”
Mr Martens also displayed a much-cited email sent on January 23rd, 2007, by Mr Tourre to his girlfriend at the time, saying of the financial markets that the “whole building is about to collapse anytime now.”
“Only potential survivor, the fabulous Fab … standing in the middle of all these complex, highly leveraged, exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all of the implications of those monstruosities!!!” the email said.
Investors lost more than $1 billion after almost all the securities tied to the transaction were downgraded, the SEC says. Paulson earned about the same amount thanks to his bet, the SEC says.
Goldman made $15 million in fees on the deal, Mr Martens said.

Sen. Warren on CNBC's "Squawk Box" defending her bill to break up mega-banks

Oregon to Charge Drivers by the Mile -- Not the Gallon

Oregon is poised to become the first state to charge drivers based on how many miles they drive -- as opposed to how many gallons of gas they purchase -- in a move that could foreshadow the future of how transportation infrastructure gets funded.
The bill, passed by the legislature and awaiting Gov. John Kitzhaber's signature, would allow up to 5,000 drivers to voluntarily enlist in a new program in which they'd pay a tax of 1.5 cents for every mile they drive in lieu of the 30 cents-per-gallon tax that drivers pay in the Beaver State.
The newly-created program is the result of years of study by state lawmakers and officials at the Oregon Department of Transportation, who have viewed the gas tax as increasingly  unsustainable for funding the state's transportation and transit needs.
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Indeed, the per-gallon gas tax -- the primary tool used by the state and federal government to fund transportation infrastructure -- is the victim of competing policy goals. Governments encourage the use and development of fuel-efficient vehicles for environmental reasons. Yet at the same time, the success of those efforts means that drivers are paying less for each mile they drive, even as their vehicles cause the same amount of congestion and wear-and-tear on roads.
The switch to a transportation tax based on miles driven, as opposed to gallons of gasoline consumed, is viewed as a way to more closely align the extent to which drivers use the road network with the amount of money they pay to maintain it.
"The bottom line is it's about fairness, and people who use the system ought to pay for the use of the system," Oregon state Sen. Bruce Starr told Governing last year.
The new, voluntary program came about after Oregon lawmakers unsuccessfully pursued a plan to require mileage-based fees for the state's most fuel-efficient vehicles.
James Whitty, manager of Oregon DOT's Office of Innovative Partnerships and Alternative Funding, says the new program is a milestone. For starters, unlike previous ODOT pilots, it's a permanent program that doesn't have an end date. It's also much larger than earlier pilots that explored the viability of miles-traveled fees.
More importantly, the system the state is developing will ultimately be the same one it uses when, eventually, mileage-based fees become widespread. The new system is set to launch in 2015, and ODOT is expected to spend $2.8 million over two years implementing it.
Whitty says he expects the new program to provide more evidence and information to lawmakers that they'll be able to use to create broader miles-traveled fees.
Additionally, ODOT typically hasn't been permitted to do much in the way of drumming up publicity for the issue. That would change under the new program. "One of the cool things about the bill is that the expectation of strong communication with the public means that ODOT will be able to spend time and resources actually marketing the program and finding a way to move the needle on public acceptance," Whitty says.
Indeed, the idea of charging drivers based on miles instead of gallons has been controversial in some places, where the concept has been labeled a "driving tax." One of the biggest hurdles to changing public opinion about the concept are the privacy concerns that come with the state tracking driving.
ODOT recently conducted a study of different options for calculating drivers' mileage in anticipation of the day when a program like this might be created. They considered a range of technologies for tracking mileage -- including those with and without GPS.
Whitty says the department didn't want to pick a "best" option but instead explored several that motorists might one day be able to choose from.
Pilot participants can use a simple device that counts mileage but doesn't involve GPS. They can use a GPS if they want to avoid being charged for driving on private or out-of-state roads. They can use a smart-phone app that uses GPS -- but only when the app is turned on. Or they can opt out of any measurements at all and just pay a flat fee.
Oregon has long been a leader in the study of mileage-based fees. It first began looking at alternatives to the gas tax in 2001 and has conducted several pilot programs since then that have gained national attention in transportation circles. Many view the state as being on the cutting edge of transportation funding.
A Congressional Budget Office report published in 2011 suggested a miles-driven fee as a viable alternative to the gas tax, and many national transportation experts have endorsed the idea too.
Yet the issue hasn't gain traction at the federal level -- the White House famously shot down the idea when former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood suggested it was worth considering -- and even pilot programs are rare outside of Oregon.
Richard Geddes, director of the Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy, says the idea of a mileage tax shouldn't be that unusual to people, given that it mirrors the same principle used by utilities like water and energy providers: pay for what you use.
Geddes, who served on a federal commission that studied transportation revenue options, says the real promise of mileage-fees is that eventually, they could serve policy goals. If the fees were dynamic -- so motorists paid more to drive during peak hours -- they could become a useful tool to manage congestion.
Jack Schenendorf, a longtime staffer on the House's Committee on Transportation Infrastructure, agreed that mileage-fees are prudent. "The more states that innovate and experiment, the better," says Schenendorf, who served on the same panel as Geddes. Programs like Oregon's can help other states as well as the federal government learn effective ways to adopt policies for the "post gas-tax era."
Still, he says, it will be a while before systems like the one created in Oregon become widespread. "(A mileage fee), at least at this early stage, have a whole set of issues layered on top it: how it will work, whether it will be accurate, and privacy," says Schenendorf. "All those issues still have to be dealt with. That's what pilot projects are for."
But, he added, mileage-fees are a long-term solution and will take years to fully implement; in the meantime, shorter-term solutions are needed to address the need for infrastructure funds at both the state and federal levels.

Goodbye Full-Time Jobs, Hello Part-Time Jobs, R.I.P. Middle Class

Source: Economic Collapse

A fundamental shift is taking place in the U.S. economy.  In fact, this transition is rapidly picking up momentum and is in danger of becoming an avalanche.  The percentage of full-time jobs in our economy is steadily declining and the percentage of part-time jobs is steadily increasing.  This is not a recent phenomenon, but now there are several factors which are accelerating this trend.  One of them is Obamacare.  The truth is that Obamacare actually gives business owners incentive to cut hours and turn full-time workers into part-time workers, and according to the Wall Street Journal and other prominent publications this is already happening all over the United States.  Perhaps this is part of the reasons why the U.S. economy actually lost 240,000 full-time jobs last month.
In a recent article entitled “Restaurant Shift: Sorry, Just Part-Time“, the Wall Street Journal explained the choices that employers are faced with thanks to Obamacare…

The Affordable Care Act requires employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent workers to offer affordable insurance to employees working 30 or more hours a week or face fines. Some companies have said the requirement could increase their costs significantly, although others have played down the potential hit.
The cost for small firms to comply with the health law will depend largely on the number of additional full-time employees that sign up for employer-sponsored coverage. Average annual premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance in 2012 were $5,615 for single coverage and $15,745 for family coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. That is up from $3,083 and $8,003, respectively, in 2002.

Thankfully the implementation of this aspect of Obamacare was recently delayed, but a lot of employers are saying that it won’t make a difference.  They know that it is coming at some point, and so they are already making the changes that they feel they will need to make in order to comply with the law…

Restaurant owners who have already begun shifting to part-time workers say they will continue that pattern.
“Does the delay change anything for us? Absolutely not,” Mr. Adams of Subway said, explaining that whether his health-care costs go up next year or in 2015, he will have to comply with the law. “We won’t start hiring full-time people.”

This is very sad, because we have already been witnessing a steady erosion of “breadwinner jobs” in this country.
It is very, very difficult to support a family if you just have a part-time job or a temp job.  But those are the jobs that our economy is producing these days.
In fact, if you can believe it, the second largest employer in the United States is now a temp agency.  Kelly Services is actually the second largest employer in the country after Wal-Mart.
Isn’t that crazy?
And full-time employment continues to lag far, far behind part-time employment.  The number of part-time workers in the United States recently hit a brand new all-time record high, but the number of full-time workers remains nearly 6 million below the old record that was set back in 2007.
For much more on this, please see my previous article entitled “15 Signs That The Quality Of Jobs In America Is Going Downhill Really Fast“.
At this point, employees are increasingly considered to be expendable “liabilities” that can be dumped the moment that their usefulness is over.
For example, employees at one restaurant down in Florida were recently fired by text message…

It’s bad enough losing your job, but more than a dozen angry employees say they were fired from a central Florida restaurant via text message.
Employees at Barducci’s Italian Bistro said they lost their jobs without notice after the restaurant suddenly closed and are still waiting for their paychecks.

This shift that we are witnessing is fundamentally changing the relationship between employers and employees in the United States.  The balance of power has moved very much toward the employers.
Most employers realize that there is intense competition for most jobs these days.  If you get tired of your job, your employer can easily go out and find a whole bunch of other people who would be thrilled to fill it.
So why has the balance of power shifted so dramatically?
Well, for one thing we have allowed millions upon millions of good paying jobs to be shipped out of the country.  Now American workers literally have to compete for jobs with workers on the other side of the planet that live in nations where it is legal to pay slave labor wages.
This should have never happened, but voters in both major political parties kept voting for politicians that were doing this to us.
Now we all pay the price.
Another factor is the rapid advancement of technology.
These days, businesses are trying use machines, computers and robots to automate just about everything that they can.  The following example comes from a recent Business Insider article…

On a windy morning in California’s Salinas Valley, a tractor pulled a wheeled, metal contraption over rows of budding iceberg lettuce plants. Engineers from Silicon Valley tinkered with the software on a laptop to ensure the machine was eliminating the right leafy buds.
The engineers were testing the Lettuce Bot, a machine that can “thin” a field of lettuce in the time it takes about 20 workers to do the job by hand.
The thinner is part of a new generation of machines that target the last frontier of agricultural mechanization — fruits and vegetables destined for the fresh market, not processing, which have thus far resisted mechanization because they’re sensitive to bruising.

So what happens when the big corporations that dominate our economy are able to automate everything?
What will the rest of us do?

How will the middle class survive if they don’t need us to work for them?
Over the past couple of centuries, we have witnessed several fundamental shifts in our economy.
Once upon a time, a very high percentage of Americans worked for themselves.  There were millions of farmers, ranchers, small store owners, etc.
But then the industrial revolution kicked in to high gear and big corporations started to gain more power.  Millions of Americans went to work for these big corporations, but it was okay because they paid us good wages to work in their factories and the middle class thrived.
Unfortunately, the big corporations have realized that things have changed and that they don’t really need us anymore.  They can replace us with technology or with super cheap labor overseas.
So that leaves the rest of us in quite a quandry.  Very few of us own our own businesses.  In fact, the percentage of self-employed workers in the United States is at an all-time record low.  And the number of us that are needed by the monolithic corporations that dominate our system is dropping by the day.
All of this is very bad news for the middle class.  The only thing that most of us have to offer is our labor, and the value of our labor is continually declining.
Unless something dramatic happens, the future of the middle class looks very bleak.

The IRS Is At It Again... Boston Family Faces Destruction

By Edward Snook
Investigative Reporter

Tom Curry with his wife Stella and their two daughters

Boston Massachusetts – 51 year old Thomas Curry of Boston started his family 19 years ago after he had established his business, and thus his ability to provide for them. Tom and his wife Stella had two beautiful daughters and Tom’s landscaping business continued to flourish due to his dedication and work ethic. They purchased a middle-class home and began saving for their daughter’s college and what they forecast to be a moderate retirement. They were succeeding with this effort due in large part to their very modest life-style. However, their hard work and their dreams were soon to be shattered.
Like many Americans, Tom Curry was patriotic and paid attention to government and the condition of his country, as opposed to sticking his head in the sands of apathy and selfishness. According to witnesses, Curry was a, “Christian man who worked hard, took excellent care of his family and often helped those in need.”
Tom Curry noticed as the years went on that he was working harder and harder, paying more and more in personal income taxes and that his financial condition was weakening. Like this writer, he didn’t agree with how his government squandered his tax dollars.

Highly Persuasive “Tax Advice”

Tom Curry stated, “In the year 1997-1998, I was introduced to the works of Irwin Schiff and former IRS agents claiming that there wasn’t any law that made the US taxpayer liable to pay an income tax. I was in a real estate office at this time and one of the agents mother was an IRS employee. His name was Warren Cormier and he was the guy who introduced me to Irwin Schiff. This was very interesting to me so I contacted Irwin Schiff directly. I then purchased all of his books, tapes and began to read and study them. I referenced and cross referenced all of his claims and believed that what he was saying was 100 percent correct and that the income tax was indeed not mandatory, that it was voluntary… I attended many seminars that Mr. Schiff had put on.”
According to a US~Observer researcher, “Hundreds of thousands ... of Americans no longer pay income taxes because of information contained in Irwin Schiff’s books.” This writer has spoken with Schiff in the past, just as I have spoken with nearly all so-called experts over the years who preach that the income tax is voluntary and we aren’t required to pay. These people are extremely persuasive, especially some of the ex-IRS employees who teach and promote this belief.
I am equally aware that it is the position of all courts in America that every US citizen is legally required to pay the income tax and that the only defense for someone charged criminally with tax-evasion is the good faith belief that they weren’t required to pay the income tax.
It didn’t take Tom Curry long to learn the government’s position on the income tax. He soon learned that he was in an uphill battle to not pay, so Tom started filing his now complicated returns after deciding he had no choice but to comply. He hired a number of different “professionals” to file his returns; however the Massachusetts State Department of Revenue (MDOR) and IRS employees informed him that his returns were fraudulent. At this point these agencies simply took Curry’s gross incomes and taxed him on these amounts, excluding any write-offs. MDOR and the IRS have made the ludicrous claims that he owes anywhere from 4-7 million dollars in taxes.
Unable to even dream about paying these amounts and factually not owing them, Curry hired a person named Nina Williams who claimed to be a tax expert to work out his problems with the taxing agencies. After a good number of years and repeated failures on the part of Williams and others to straighten out his tax problems, Curry could see that he was stuck in “limbo” by the agencies. At this point the abusive agencies started stripping Curry’s bank accounts, attaching his properties and forcing him to sign agreements that he disagreed with by threatening to take his driving privileges.
MDOR and the IRS went ballistic as they routinely do and on January 11, 2011, they sent numerous armed agents to the Curry residence, battering ram and all. They confiscated all of his business records and many of his personal possessions. Keep in mind, Tom Curry had not been charged with a crime at this point.
Curry then hired different attorneys who failed to help and finally, after many threats of criminal charges by the agencies, Tom hired an attorney from a substantial law firm in Boston to represent him. After paying this attorney approximately $75,000, Curry was informed that the MDOR and the IRS were still going to prosecute him criminally and that he needed to accept their plea-bargain. This is the exact same scenario that countless Americans incur when they become at odds with the “Greatest Terrorist Organization” in history – the Internal Revenue Service. Curry was petrified at this point and decided to take his attorneys advice after having the hell scared out him with threats of many years in prison if he didn’t. At this point Curry was well aware that MDOR and the IRS were working hand in hand with Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) Victor Wild in Boston to bring him to his knees.
After many tears and hours of stress, Tom Curry faced the fact that he had not intentionally committed any crimes - that he couldn’t lie and say he did something he didn’t do. He called his attorney and instructed him to withdraw the extorted plea agreement. He then fired the attorney, whose reported response was, “don’t do this to me.”
AUSA Victor Wild now ramps up his pressure on Curry, threatening him with a Grand Jury Indictment. Wild has continued his attempt to force Curry into a plea agreement and is currently preparing a Grand Jury in Boston to indict him. This will be an easy task for Victor Wild as he will be in total control of the jury, of the information they receive and the information that is withheld from them, however, there is now one huge difference – America will know exactly what he and the IRS is doing to the Curry family…
Not satisfied with over 12 years of destructive actions against Curry; not satisfied with forcing Curry to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars defending himself; not interested in allowing Curry to correct his returns, which Curry has attempted to do for the last 7-8 years, Wild has now threatened to arrest Curry's wife, Stella, and charge her criminally, because she attempted to help Tom with his heavy work load for the past 4-5 years. Her work included billing customers and answering phone calls – she had nothing whatsoever to do with taxes. This is exactly what abusive people in government do when they are bent on destroying someone. This is exactly what the IRS teaming with prosecutors have done in a countless number of cases – charge the wife, in order to force the husband to plead guilty. What perversion, what injustice!
Tom Curry has hired the renowned tax Lawyer Michael Minns to defend him and the US~Observer fully intends to let each and every person in Suffolk County, Massachusetts know the entire truth about the evil attacks by totally out-of-control government officials and tax agents against an exemplary Curry family. I know many fine, patriotic people from Boston and I know they are not going to appreciate the destruction of Tom and Stella Curry and their wonderful, young daughters.
The US~Observer commends Tom Curry for taking a stand against the abusive thieves at the Massachusetts Department of Revenue and the Internal Revenue Service. I commend this man for being reasonable, for realizing that he was given tax advice that might have been essentially correct, but was so wrong in real life and application today. For these agencies and Assistant United States Attorney Victor Wild to attempt to ruin a great American and his wonderful family when he has made every attempt to be compliant and pay his taxes is unacceptable, in fact it is pure evil.
In closing, our readership should work hard to do away with these abusive agencies who steal from each and every one of us, who literally squander our hard earned tax dollars. We should all be concerned about the Victor Wilds of America, because these officials are a real threat to each and every one of us, not to mention their threat to freedom itself. And, all Americans who hear that you aren’t legally required to pay the income tax, should run like hell away from this wrong, costly and dangerous advice. However well-intended Irwin Schiff and other tax-protest-evangelists are, they become scam-artists the moment they convince a somewhat trusting, real patriotic and maybe a bit naïve American like Tom Curry that he is not legally required to pay the personal income tax. Curry obviously is the victim in this tragic case.
If you are as incensed as I am, call US Prosecutor Victor Wild and demand he settles this situation rather than prosecute a man so willing to be reasonable and pay his taxes – 617-748-3100.

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Edward Snook is the publisher of the US~Observer newspaper. He was a successful investigator and entrepreneur prior to beginning his efforts to vindicate innocent people over 25 years ago. He has published the newspaper for over 20 years.

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Author Learsy: Speculative Trading Causing Steep Rise in Oil Prices

The recent dramatic rise of oil prices is due to speculative trading, charges author and former commodities trader Raymond Learsy in an article for Huffington Post.

The government must intervene, argues Learsy, author of "Oil and Finance: the Epic Corruption Continues 2010-2012."

"The days of the commodity exchanges functioning as casinos should be brought to a cataclysmic halt by forceful government action serving the interests of the public's well-being and sane economic policy."

Forbes Columnist: ‘Who the Hell Cleared This?’

The price of oil is up over 10 percent, or over $10 a barrel, in recent weeks, translating into a $200 million a day cost for the U.S. economy. The price increase has been attributed to a drop in exports from Libya, disruptions in Nigeria and unrest in Egypt.

But Learsy doesn't buy those explanations.

Those conventional explanations, according to Learsy, do not mention that "the game may be rigged and that the oil industry and the commodity exchanges are taking us down the garden path, with a corrupt system that has left all vestige of fair play and market forces that reflect true conditions of supply and demand."

Government agencies may be starting to recognize that the game is broken or even rigged, he notes.

The Federal Trade Commission has opened a probe into oil price fixing. It's not yet clear if the investigation will result in anything meaningful, he says, noting that previous probes did not.

Meanwhile, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is examining excessive speculation "position limits" of exchange-traded derivatives, Learsy notes. "That speculative/trading positions on the exchanges are some 30 times greater than physical product seems to have escaped them either through baleful ignorance or worse."

Because U.S. gas producers cannot export natural gas by sea, he explains, natural gas is a domestic market subject to American anti-trust laws and a true reflection of supply and demand.

"Were OPEC and its ilk operating in the U.S. market as American or American-based oil companies, they would be hauled off in handcuffs for their illegal collusionary activities."

Foreign oil exporters such as Saudi Arabia or Russia, working through their sovereign wealth funds, can manipulate oil prices by holding massive amounts of oil on the commodities markets.

That's why greater transparency is essential, he argues. "Who is trading, on whose account? Are they simply traders, or are they producers and consumers of the commodities being traded?"

Increased summer vacation travel in addition to instability overseas helped boost prices, experts tells The New York Times. Although more U.S. oil production, slowing growth in China, and a poor European economy should keep prices down in the future, it's difficult to predict political turmoil abroad, they say.

"Oil price predictions used to be about oil consumption and markets, but now it’s about where the next riot will break out," Stale Tungesvik, a senior executive at Statoil, the Norwegian oil company, tells The Times. "It’s so much more politically based, and that makes it a mystery to everyone."

Forbes Columnist: ‘Who the Hell Cleared This?’

© 2013 Moneynews. All rights reserved.

What Does a Currency Collapse Look Like?

This analysis has been contributed by The Common Sense Show.
In Part one of this series, I detailed how this administration has set themselves up to roll out martial law like no other martial law in history. Part one further revealed that the mechanisms needed for hard-core martial law are either active or merely waiting in the wings. All that is needed for unmistakable martial law to be rolled out in its entirety, is for the right trigger event to take place.

Will It Be a False Flag Attack Or a Currency Collapse?

My initial response to that question is, does it really matter? The pattern of societal collapse and subsequent governmental enslavement of the American people will be largely the same whether the precipitating incident is a false flag attack or a currency collapse. For the purpose of simplicity, let us call the precursor event to all-out martial law, a currency collapse.

The Federal Reserve Is the Enemy of Humanity

The Federal Reserve has been bleeding this country to death for exactly one century. What the dollar bought 100 years ago, can only buy three cents of product today. This means that 97% of the value of our currency has gone into the pockets of the Federal Reserve.
I am amazed at the abject ignorance of the American people and that they think the Federal Reserve is actually part of the federal government. As we like to stay in the alternative media, the Federal Reserve is no more federal than Federal Express.

The Dollar Is Diving

The world is running from the dollar. Until recently, our dollar was used as the currency of international trading. Further, the dollar was also the reserve currency for oil. All foreign countries wishing to purchase oil from the Middle East, first had to purchase dollars from the Federal Reserve. After FDR took us off the gold standard during the Great Depression and Richard Nixon finished the task of providing America with a totally Fiat currency, the only backing that our dollar enjoys is that of being the reserve currency for both trading and for oil (i.e. the Petrodollar scam).
The major cause of the present calamity is fractional reserve banking. When the government goes to the private Federal Reserve and asks for one trillion dollars, the federal reserve gets to print one trillion for the government, at interest, and 10 trillion dollars for themselves and to lend out at high interest rates. This inflationary practice erodes the value of your dollar while enriching our Federal Reserve masters. Ultimately, the currency upon which we depend on will be destroyed and life as we know it will be changed forever.

A Changing of the Financial Guard

Today, many important nations are running from the dollar. Countries such as India, China, Iran, Japan, and Australia have signed their own trade agreements and their currency of choice is no longer the dollar!

When the collapse of the dollar occurs, it will literally and figuratively come like a thief in the night, and I do mean overnight!
We are all familiar with the concept of inflation, which is the intentional byproduct of the Federal Reserve.  But I am not just talking inflation, I’m speaking about hyperinflation which is caused by the collapse of the value of the currency resulting in runaway prices. Here are three examples of how quickly a currency collapse can occur when a nation’s money when its money no longer holds it value:
1. In Weimar Germany, from 1922 – 1923, prices  doubled  every three days.
2. In the modern era, in Yugoslavia from 1992-94, witnessed prices doubling every 34 hours.
3. In Zimbabwe, in the two year period from 2007 – 2008, prices doubled  every 25 hours.
History is replete with examples of currency collapses and they typically follow very predictable patterns in which a nation unravels and social chaos, and many times, widespread violence and even genocide becomes part of the national landscape.

What Does a Currency Collapse Look Like?

Generally, when the currency collapses, a stock market crash is right on its heels. Because of the repeal of Glass-Steagall, a banking collapse will immediately occur following the collapse of the stock market. Your life savings will be wiped out. From this point on, the effect cascades like a roaring tsunami racing across the open ocean.
Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy demonstrated that gas stations will be bone dry within two days following a complete collapse. Subsequently, commerce will not move. If you are on vacation like I presently am, you may not make it home. On the second day following a currency collapse, being on the road will be a risky endeavor because of other desperate motorists.
With no available fuel, the grocery and drug stores will be empty within one to three days. There will be no food to be had except for that which is decaying in your refrigerator and that in which you can beg, borrow and steal from your neighbors who will also be begging, borrowing and stealing. If you have an adequate food and water supply, you better have an adequate gun and ammo supply in order to defend your assets. And when will you sleep? The protection of your critical assets is a 24/7 proposition. Therefore, having a cooperative survival plan is critical.
Without gas, people will stop going to work. Corporations will disappear overnight. Hurricane Katrina showed America that the police cannot be expected to stay on the job more than 48-72 hours as they will be home protecting their families and foraging for food and water like everyone else. The emergence of former police gangs will become common in an effort to secure the products which will ensure survival. Therefore, when your home is under attack, there will nobody to call. Everyone will be on their own.
The elderly and the chronically ill will be the first to die. Too old to defend their assets, the elderly will find themselves overpowered as they will make easy preys of opportunity for the roving gangs. The chronically ill will have no way to procure their medication and even if they survive the looting rampage which will follow a currency collapse, these poor souls will perish without access to their life-sustaining prescriptions.
The money in your wallet will be useless. Cell phones will not work. Heating and air conditioning will not work either and depending on the time of year, the environment could prove deadly to untold numbers of people.
Water treatment plants will stop operating for the same reasons that you will not be able to find a cop during this crisis nobody will be manning the water treatment plants. Toilets will back up and diseases will spread like wildfire. Something as simple as toilet paper will become a prized commodity. There will be no trash pickup and more disease will result due to the increased rodent population.
Clean drinking water and hunger will become the dominant motivator in society. Roving bands of looters, turned murderers, will sweep through neighborhoods seeking to obtain these critical elements of survival. Young women will sell themselves for a can of food for their children. Society will see the widespread loss of human dignity and self-respect.
Infanticide and euthanasia of the weak will become common events because there will be decided efforts to reduce the amount of mouths to feed. There will be the stark realization that the lights are not coming back on and the ensuing sense of hopelessness will lead to murder-suicides within families and simple incidences of suicide will be used as a means to escape the horrendous circumstances.

Humanity’s Darkest Hour

There will come a time when all the available animals will be devoured and then there will be only one place to turn to for food. History shows that cannibalism will set in by the beginning of the third week. Extreme hunger will lead to humans hunting humans as an available food supply. This will begin to occur within 15-20 days following the currency collapse.

The Government’s Version of the Final Solution

If the establishment military has properly planned, they will move into take control but they will not move quickly. The more death there is, the fewer people there will be to control. Government will typically move in with their solutions towards the end of the second week.
The reasons behind the creation of Executive Order 13603 will soon become readily apparent. You will retain ownership over nothing including food, water, guns, ammunition, your house, your car and even yourself. If you survive, you will be conscripted to work in some capacity in a specialty and location not of your choosing. On a positive note following this catastrophe, the debate over the existence of FEMA camps will be quickly determined and your NSA threat matrix score, resulting from their illegal surveillance, will have a lot to do with whether you survive or are executed as an enemy of the state. There is one ironclad thing that you can count on, food and water will be used to control the people following a currency collapse.

Who Will Help Us?

When past currency collapses occur, organizations such as the World Bank, the IMF, the UN and the US have appeared to render their predatory version of help in exchange for control of critical infrastructure and other capital considerations. Because of this aid, more people survived in the impacted areas. However, what happens when the top dog collapses? Who would be able to come and render aid in America? Even in a world disgusted by our imperialistic ways would  offer help, could they? Not under the coming circumstances could anyone offer help because they will be in a worse situation.
In short, there will be nobody riding in to rescue the United States. Despite some rebelling against the dollar, the world is still dependent upon our currency. When the currency collapses it will pull the rest of world down with us. The subsequent collapse of global currencies will indeed constitute a major depopulation event and all the elite have to do is wait it out in places like the tunnels under Denver International Airport.
During this time, Americans will truly discover if there really are FEMA camps and what they will be used for. If people want to eat, they will be enticed to go where food is promised. Although you can count on the above mentioned events transpiring in the event of a currency collapse, what lies ahead is unknown to a large extent because the top dog will not have been economically obliterated in modern history.

Conclusion

Obama is willing to talk about the 17 trillion dollar deficit. However, you never hear the government nor the media discuss the real debt? Our real financial obligations total 240 trillion dollars through programs like social security, Medicare, public pensions and welfare. Subsequently, I want to make one thing abundantly clear; It is not a matter if we are going to have a currency collapse, it is when.  And the when is much sooner than later.  It could happen tomorrow, next month and even next year. We do not have two years left in the American economic engine. A currency collapse is nothing that I look forward to, and people who intend on surviving the event should be in the midst of their preparations.

---

Dave Hodges is an award winning psychology, statistics and research professor, a college basketball coach, a mental health counselor, a political activist and writer who has published dozens of editorials and articles in several publications such as Freedom Phoenix, News With Views, and The Arizona Republic. 

The Common Sense Show features a wide variety of important topics that range from the loss of constitutional liberties, to the subsequent implementation of a police state under world governance, to exploring the limits of human potential. The primary purpose of The Common Sense Show is to provide Americans with the tools necessary to reclaim both our individual and national sovereignty. You can follow Dave’s work at his web site, on Facebook and Twitter.

Keiser Report – The Great Gold Eastward Migration

In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the market creatures with no apparent instinct for survival as they walk toward the frothy market despite all the signs of a debt tsunami about to hit. They also discuss when Goldman Shrugged after Thomson Reuters data was no longer available to high speed frontrunners. In the second half, Max talks to Jan Skoyles of The Real Asset Company about gold demand in China, the Shanghai Gold Exchange and smuggling Snowden in Venezuela’s gold delivery.

Treasury & Federal Reserve in Shell Game Conspiracy Hiding Federal Default

The federal debt has been illegally kept below the borrowing limit for the last 2 months. The conspiracy between the Treasury and Federal Reserve threatens to destabilize the entire financial underpinnings of America. This is CRIMINAL.

Chris Hedges: Urban Poverty in America Made Me Question Everything

A Major Bank Makes A Freudian Slip About The Dollar

[The following post is by TDV Editor-in-Chief, Jeff Berwick.]
The cognitive dissonance about the dollar never fails to amaze me. People know in their bones that their dollars will be worth a lot less in the future...yet they continue to trust and cling to the dollar as a store of value.  They invest in things denominated in dollars that pay interest well below the rate of inflation.  Or they go for all out gambling in the stock market to have a hope of outpacing inflation enough to build a tiny bit of wealth to leave to their grandkids.
Commodities like copper with an industrial demand may fall in price -- even drastically -- in the midst of a global depression. But the 30% or so drop in the price of something like copper will be running hard against the US government's need to inflate away the value of the US dollar by having the Fed create new money to buy up more and more government debt. Inflation tends to outpace falling prices due to falling demand.  The folks at Wells Fargo understand this and seem to be trying to help clear up some of the public confusion.

The funniest part of this advertisement is that the essential truth it spoke was unintentional.  The unwitting ad copywriter from Wells Fargo likely meant to tell you that if you invest in "other things", your money will be worth more tomorrow.  But what actually ended up happening is that he spoke the truth about the dollar... and the entire fiat currency system.
This graphic says it all.

Anyone notice something interesting in that chart after around 1971?  Something interesting like what that Asiana airliner did in San Francisco last week but in the opposite direction?
And that is just an estimate of the Consumer Price Index as defined by the US government... which of course is completely hedonistically adjusted!
Wells Fargo just had a Freudian moment.  A dollar tomorrow is worth less than a dollar today.
It's actually designed that way.  Why most people still don't know it is a mystery to us.  Buy gold. Buy silver. Gold and silver are commodities...but they are also monetary metals.  They have been used as money for thousands of years and even the most brainwashed monopoly fiat money victims will catch on when things get bad enough.
Those brainwashed victims aren't ready to catch on just yet, however.  Right now they're buying the story the government tells the mainstream media to spread: the money supply inflation unleashed by the Fed has worked...The recovery is on! So the masses aren't looking to gold and silver anymore since they're no longer worried about the health of the economy. So gold and silver prices have taken an enormous beating.

Gold 30-Day Chart

Silver 30-Day Chart

But the masses will soon find out that they've been fed lies. Then they're really going to wish they'd paid more attention to this quote from Irwin Schiff:

"All of the government's monetary, economic and political power, as well as its extensive propaganda machinery, will be enlisted in a constant battle to drive down the price of gold - but in the absence of any fundamental change in the nation's monetary, fiscal, and economic direction, simply regard any major retreat in the price of gold as an unexpected buying opportunity."

This is an almost embarrassingly obvious opportunity to snatch up gold and silver before the inevitable happens and the government and central bank destroy the monetary system with inflation-fueled debt. So I repeat: Buy Gold. Buy Silver.
But if you acquire significant amounts of gold (and silver) -- amounts large enough for a desperate thug like the USSA government to notice -- then leaving them in the USSA is as good as putting them in the government's hands. Be sure to protect your gold by getting it out of Dodge. Learn how to Get Your Gold Out Of Dodge with the report of the same name. You can learn more about getting the report here...or you can get it free when you sign up for all the macro analysis and actionable advice in the TDV subscription newsletter.
Get your assets out of the Western financial system before it completely collapses. And get your ass out from the Western world, too, into a freer, more prosperous place -- like Latin America, specifically Galt's Gulch, Chile . And also be sure to get yourself much better slave papers (citizenships and passports). It's essentially impossible (sadly) to be stateless in this world. But at this point the non-Western states are much better plantations to belong to than the Western ones.

Obama’s Praetorian Guard of Capitalism

Obama’s “Hidden Hand” political strategy in his second term (Peter Baker, in NYT, July 16) merits notice for its utter phoniness (and NYT/Baker gullibility), as though a low profile, designed to convey the velvet glove of measured yet steady reform, has changed anything in his presidency, which from the start has raised sophisticated corporatism, with its full antiradical implications, policies, consequences, to a high art.  Obama’s legacy—it’s too late for him to worry about this now—will be defined by his treachery as a leader and putative tribune of the people.  In retrospect, Nixon and Bush 2 appear as mere choirboys in comparison, not because of Obama’s “smarts” (he has the brashness of a hustler, which passes in our day for intelligence), but because he can use liberalism as a backdrop for the pursuit of consistently reactionary policies, domestic as well as foreign.  Liberals and progressives, especially, have been taken in, the latest enormous crime being massive surveillance which, once revealed, is allowed to become yesterday’s news, attention shifting instead to Snowden’s apprehension—an example where the real criminal seeks to pin the label of “criminal” on the one who exposes the crime.  Liberals/ progressives sit on their hands (perhaps that’s where Obama’s team got the idea of the “hidden hand” as the latest selling point to cover up a record which hardly needs covering up, so far has radicals’ rigor mortis set in) while data mining, Espionage Act prosecutions, the whole range of civil liberties made mincemeat of, all constitute only one area of manifold and fundamental abuses: the liberalization of cynicism, to render it palatable to the groupies, while the haute crowd of bankers, militarists, defense contractors, national-security advisors, DOJ apologists for international war crimes, and, as they say in the Shakespeare plays, diverse and assorted other characters, laugh in their teeth.
The “hidden hand” fits perfectly with Obama’s (and all of Washington’s, now that he has set the tone, and shown how easy it is to get away with it) compulsive-obsessive regard for secrecy, itself entwined with not only the over-classification of government documents (leading to a state-secrets defense for what amounts to as judicial immunity), but also surveillance per se, the need for control, the perhaps still greater need for acting with impunity, as with targeted assassination, without fear of discovery.  What a bunch of miscreants on which we, as a nation, have bestowed the public trust!  It gets worse, the further one probes: taxation, or the lack thereof, of corporate, banking, and individual wealth; deregulation, nonregulation, outright favoritism—take your pick, as economic concentration moves along, and the Boeings, GEs, Monsantos, Morgan, Chases, are doing very well, thank you; stonewalling and utter stupefaction when it comes to climate change; above all, a gargantuan military apparatus, and missions enough planned or secretly executed to please the most discerning connoisseur (aka, maniacal devotee of  murder, mayhem, and lethal instruments of terror), with little at all remaining to maintain a social safety net worthy of the name.  Under Obama, militarism = planned impoverishment.  Or if not planned, nevertheless operationally the result; for the country is suffering big time, as corporate profits swell, infrastructure crumbles, education is neglected, cities decay, private equity funds blossom, all amid the inhumaneness and colossal waste of military outposts spread worldwide, naval forces steam to the Pacific, Special Ops forces gain purchase on practically every continent, a veritable merry-go-round as the music spins in tarantella fervor the tune of counterrevolution.  The Obama Administration is the New Praetorian guarding the welfare of global capitalism, with a special nod to what is quaintly termed the US national interest.
My New York Times Comment to the Baker article (July 16) follows:
The “hidden hand” approach to presidential leadership is just one more public relations gimmick to distract attention from the substantive content of Obama’s record and policies. This was a failed presidency from Day One, when it became apparent that ’08 campaign rhetoric (replete with teleprompter, the Axelrod writing stable, and Americans’ desperate wish to turn a corner) was plain hooey. The appointment of the Geithner-Summers team of Clinton-Rubin deregulators was the tip-off to acceptance of market fundamentalism and Wall Street rampages with impunity. And the coziness of Obama’s relations with the CIA, JSOC, and the intelligence and military communities made clear an aggressive foreign policy (pace, Nobel Peace Laureate) composed of the Pacific-first geopolitical strategy, an escalation in paramilitary operations, and, with John Brennan and “Terror Tuesdays,” the extreme ugliness and ruthlessness of embarking on a personal course (far exceeding his predecessor) of armed drones for targeted assassination.
Obama carries on, with some new faces (e.g., Rice, Powers), and new slogans, such as humanitarian interventionism, but on his watch, and with his essentially nihilistic, opportunist mental framework, we as a nation are closer to fascism than at any time in American history.  Whomever constitute his “admirers,” presumably liberals and progressives, merely confirms that radicalism is dead in America, the victim of its own shallowness and false consciousness.

Norman Pollack is the author of “The Populist Response to Industrial America” (Harvard) and “The Just Polity” (Illinois), Guggenheim Fellow, and professor of history emeritus, Michigan State University. His new book, Eichmann on the Potomac, will be published by CounterPunch/AK Press in the fall of 2013.
Republished with permission from: Counterpunch

In the Grip of Tyranny

The American people have suffered a coup d’etat, but they are hesitant to acknowledge  it. The regime ruling in Washington today lacks constitutional and legal legitimacy.  Americans are ruled by usurpers who claim that the executive branch is above the law and that the US Constitution is a mere “scrap of paper.”
An unconstitutional government is an illegitimate government. The oath of allegiance requires defense of the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” As the Founding Fathers made clear, the main enemy of the Constitution is the government itself.  Power does not like to be bound and tied down and constantly works to free itself from constraints.
The basis of the regime in Washington is nothing but usurped power. The Obama Regime, like the Bush/Cheney Regime, has no legitimacy.  Americans are oppressed by an illegitimate government ruling, not by law and the Constitution, but by lies and naked force. Those in government see the US Constitution as a “chain that binds our hands.”
The South African apartheid regime was more legitimate than the regime in Washington. The apartheid Israeli regime in Palestine is more legitimate.  The Taliban are more legitimate. Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein were more legitimate.
The only constitutional protection that the Bush/Obama regime has left standing is the Second Amendment, a meaningless amendment considering the disparity in arms between Washington and what is permitted to the citizenry. No citizen standing with a rifle can protect himself and his family from one of the Department of Homeland Security’s 2,700 tanks, or from a drone, or from a heavily armed SWAT force in body armor.

Like serfs in the dark ages, American citizens can be picked up on the authority of some unknown person in the executive branch and thrown in a dungeon, subject to torture, without any evidence ever being presented to a court or any information to the person’s relatives of his/her whereabouts.  Or they can be placed on a list without explanation that curtails their right to travel by air.  Every communication of every American, except  face-to-face conversation in non-bugged environments, is intercepted and recorded by the National Stasi Agency from which phrases can be strung together to produce a “domestic extremist.”
If throwing an American citizen in a dungeon is too much trouble, the citizen can simply be blown up with a hellfire missile launched from a drone.  No explanation is necessary.
For the Obama tyrant, the exterminated human being was just a name on a list.
The president of the united states has declared that he possesses these constitutionally forbidden rights, and his regime has used them to oppress and murder US citizens. The president’s claim that his will is higher than law and the Constitution is public knowledge.  Yet, there is no demand for the usurper’s impeachment. Congress is supine. The serfs are obedient.
The people who helped transform a democratically accountable president into a Caesar include John Yoo, who was rewarded for his treason by being accepted as a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt school of law.  Yoo’s colleague in treason, Jay Scott Bybee was rewarded by being appointed a federal judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. We now have a Berkeley law professor teaching, and a federal circuit judge ruling, that the executive branch is above the law.
The executive branch coup against America has succeeded. The question is: will it stand? Today, the executive branch consists of liars, criminals, and traitors. The evil on earth seems concentrated in Washington.
Washington’s response to Edward Snowden’s evidence that Washington, in total contravention of law both domestic and international, is spying on the entire world has demonstrated to every country that Washington places the pleasure of revenge above law and human rights.
On Washington’s orders, its European puppet states refused overflight permission to the Bolivian presidential airliner carrying President Morales and forced the airliner to land in Austria and be searched. Washington thought that Edward Snowden might be aboard the airliner.  Capturing Snowden was more important to Washington than respect for international law and diplomatic immunity.
How long before Washington orders its UK puppet to send in a SWAT team to drag Julian Asange from the Ecuadoran embassy in London and hand him over to the CIA for waterboarding?
On July 12 Snowden met in the Moscow airport with human rights organizations from around the world. He stated that the illegal exercise of power by Washington prevents him from traveling to any of the three Latin American countries who have offered him asylum. Therefore, Snowden said that he accepted Russian President Putin’s conditions and requested asylum in Russia.
Insouciant americans and the young unaware of the past don’t know what this means. During my professional life it was Soviet Russia that persecuted truth tellers, while America gave them asylum and tried to protect them.  Today it is Washington that persecutes those who speak the truth, and it is Russia that protects them.
The American public has not, this time, fallen for Washington’s lie that Snowden is a traitor.  The polls show that a majority of Americans see Snowden as a whistleblower.
It is not the US that is damaged by Snowden’s revelations.  It is the criminal elements in the US government that have pulled off a coup against democracy, the Constitution, and the American people who are damaged. It is the criminals who have seized power, not the American people, who are demanding Snowden’s scalp.
The Obama Regime, like the Bush/Cheney Regime, has no legitimacy.  Americans are oppressed by an illegitimate government ruling, not by law and the Constitution, but by lies and naked force.
Under the Obama tyranny, it is not merely Snowden who is targeted for extermination, but every truth-telling American in the country.  It was Department of Homeland Security boss Janet Napolitano, recently rewarded for her service to tyranny by being appointed Chancellor of the of the University of California system, who said that Homeland Security had shifted its focus from Muslim terrorists to “domestic extremists,” an elastic and undefined term that easily includes truth-tellers like Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden who embarrass the government by revealing its crimes.  The criminals who have seized illegitimate power in Washington cannot survive unless truth can be suppressed or redefined as treason.
If Americans acquiesce to the coup d’etat, they will have placed themselves firmly in the grip of tyranny.
Paul Craig Roberts is a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. His latest book The Failure of Laissez-Faire Capitalism. Roberts’ How the Economy Was Lost is now available from CounterPunch in electronic format.
Republished with permission from: Counterpunch

Ron Rosen: We are on the verge of the biggest move in the history of the precious metals market – Silver will advance roughly 800% and gold is set to soar over $3,000 from current levels

With continued uncertainty in the gold and silver markets, today a 58-year market veteran told King World News that silver will advance roughly 800% and gold is set to soar over $3,000 from current levels.  Ron Rosen, who has been at this business for almost six decades, also spoke about the mining shares..
Eric King:  “Ron, you’ve been doing this for 58 years, where are we right now as you see it in the gold and silver bull markets?”
Rosen:  “We are on the verge of the biggest move in the history of the precious metals market, and it’s not far away from beginning.  It’s going to be a monster move….
http://kingworldnews.com/…Silver_Set_To_Advance_A_Remarkable_800_From_Current_Levels.html
Japanese Consumers To Become Net Buyers Of Gold Again After 8 Years
as the yen’s decline and looming inflation drive them to seek refuge in bullion, Bruce Ikemizu, the head of commodities trading in Tokyo at Standard Bank Plc.”Ron Rosen
While the largest gold ETF in the Western hemisphere is unloading physical gold, the land of the rising sun is doing the opposite. The biggest ETF in Japan has accumulated 10% of its physical holding this year. Bloombergwrites that “Japanese consumers are poised to become net buyers of gold for the first time in eight years as the yen’s decline and looming inflation drive them to seek refuge in bullion, Bruce Ikemizu, the head of commodities trading in Tokyo at Standard Bank Plc.”

Weakness in the yen driven by a huge monetary government stimulus, incited Japanese people to hedge against inflation. “Bullion is sought here as a hedge against inflation and a rout in financial markets,” Osamu Hoshi said in an interview. He is the general manager at Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corp., which introduced the nation’s first gold-backed ETF three years ago. Bloomberg reports that the trading value in Mitsubishi UFJ Trust’s gold ETF on the Tokyo Stock Exchange amounted to 7.23 billion yen in May. It has become the most-traded commodity fund listed in Japan.
http://goldsilverworlds.com/investing/japanese-consumers-to-become-net-buyers-of-gold-again-after-8-years/
Why Stephan Bogner Believes You Should Be 100% Invested in Precious Metals
The fundamentals for gold and silver have never been as bullish as they are today. Money is much more likely to flow into the sector, as there’s no other place to hide from the increasing uncertainty and excesses of our financial and economic system….
http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1373918400.php
Hinde Capital – The time to buy gold is fast approaching, if that time is not already upon us.
the bursting of the ‘Great Bond Bubble’ will lead to a formative & substantial rise in gold as official money, institutional & investor money seeks an asset that can protect us all from a global default & resetting of the monetary order….
http://www.zerohedge.com/print/476435

BREAKING: Fed’s Esthe George Tells Fbn’s Peterbarnestv ‘It Is Time’ To Begin Adjusting Bond Buying QE!

FOX Business‏@FoxBusiness1 min
Breaking: #Fed’s Esther #George tells FBN’s @PeterBarnesTV ‘it is time’ to begin adjusting bond buying #QE
Russian Market‏@russian_market6 min 
Fed’s George Says It’s Time To Adjust Qe Purchases
Russian Market‏@russian_market4 min
Strange it’s Tuesday and US Markets are still red.
Fed’s George says that it’s time to reduce bond buying 
The Federal Reserve’s Esther George has said that it’s time to adjust the Fed’s bond buying to the Fox Business Network, reiterating that quantitative easing (QE) has costs and benefits. – See more at: http://www.cityam.com/blog/feds-george-says-its-time-reduce-bond-buying#sthash.PrxCBIUM.dpuf
Kansas City Fed chief makes case to start reducing bond purchases ‘sooner rather than later’
Kansas City Fed President Esther George, in the video seen above, said the Federal Reserve should start reducing its $85 billion per month bond purchase program.
“The important thing is to start the process,” she said in an interview with Fox Business. She wants to start “sooner rather than later.”

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/capitolreport/2013/07/16/kansas-city-fed-chief-makes-case-to-start-reducing-bond-purchases-sooner-rather-than-later/?mod=MW_home_latest_news
This Is Your Economy On QE
Presented with little comment aside to say – Thanks for nothing Ben…



It appears the closer we get to the actual real horizon on the actual economic data, the more the sell-side hopium-peddlers are forced to ratchet down expectations (and of course ratchet up the future hope some more)… First Barclays, then JPMorgan, and nowGoldman Sachs…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-16/your-economy-qe
Luis

Feds Committing Fraud? USA Debt Exactly $16,699,396,000,000.00 for 56 Days… Remains $25 Million Below Legal Limit… The Blueprint of The Next Manufactured Crisis Is Here

(CNSNews.com) – According to theDaily Treasury Statement for July 12, which the U.S. Treasury released this afternoon, the federal debt that is currently subject to a legal limit of $16,699,421,095,673.60 has stood at exactly $16,699,396,000,000.00 for 56 straight days.
That means that for 56 straight days the federal debt has remained approximately $25 million below the legal limit.
Even though the portion of the federal debt that is subject to a legal limit has not changed in almost two months, the Treasury has continued to sell bills, notes and bonds at a value that exceeds the value of the bills, notes and bonds it has been redeeming.
The “public debt subject to limit”–as the Treasury calls the portion of the federal debt that is legally limited by Congress–first hit $16,699,396,000,000.00 at the close of business on May 17.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/treasury-debt-has-been-exactly-1669939600000000-56-days
“Key Takeaways:
- We expect the Treasury to exhaust its extraordinary measures to create borrowing authority on October 31, and run out of cash on November 1.
- Our “drop dead” date is about two months later than an earlier forecast. The main reason for the change is that we underestimated how much borrowing authority Treasury could create this time around.
- Our forecast assumes that Freddie Mac pays Treasury a $30.0 billion dividend at the end of September. That’s not a given, though.
- Even without the dividend payment, Treasury could probably make it to November 1 without a debt limit increase.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-12/remember-debt-ceiling
This article sets out the “official” story of the “problem.” Read between the lines. The blueprint of the next manufactured crisis is here.
—
“The U.S. will once again run into is debt limit this fall, and the smart money isn’t on whether there will be another congressional showdown, but when it will happen.

The drop-dead date is likely to be around Oct. 31, according to the latest analysis of headroom under the ceiling by Nancy Vanden Houten of Stone & McCarthy Research. Treasury has been using extraordinary measures to keep U.S. debt under the cap since May, and rising revenue has managed to put off the day of reckoning for months. But that day will come eventually, and the end of October could shape up to be a perfect storm of policy uncertainty.
Before the U.S. gets to the debt ceiling, it will have to deal with funding the government for fiscal 2014 that starts on Oct. 1. Failure to come to an agreement could result in a shutdown. Usual practice is to pass a continuing resolution that kicks the can down the road, and it’s likely that such a move could be pushed off for a few weeks and coupled with the debt ceiling.
That should be enough to have any Wall Street trader reaching for the Alka Seltzer, but let’s throw another wild card into the mix: the Federal Reserve has a meeting scheduled for the same week that Treasury is likely to bump into the debt ceiling.
The Fed is expected to start slowing it purchases of bonds some time in the autumn. Many economists now expect the so-called tapering tobegin in September. But, as Chairman Ben Bernanke likes to remind markets, Fed policy is dependent on data, and it’s quite possible that the Fed could be still be debating its first action when it meets in October.
Of course, there’s still a lot of time for all of this to be made moot. The Fed could make its intentions crystal clear and alter policy in September. Meanwhile, Congress could come back from summer recession refreshed and avoid both a government shutdown and the debt ceiling with a grand bargain that accomplishes some but not all of both parties’ goals. When Halloween rolls around this year, it should be clear whether markets are in store for a trick or a treat. Care to wager which one is more likely?”
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/07/13/number-of-the-week-potential-perfect-storm-of-debt-ceiling-and-fed/

What if this is connected?

“Goldman Sachs is the GOVERNMENT” – John Rubino at the Liberty Mastermind Symposium

Premiums High In China and India – China Gold Deliveries Double

by GoldCore

Today’s AM fix was USD 1,286.00, EUR 983.03 and GBP 853.24 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,281.25, EUR 983.08 and GBP 850.65 per ounce.
Gold rose $0.50 or 0.04% yesterday and closed at $1,285.00/oz. Silver gained $0.07 or 0.35% and closed at $19.96.

Gold Fixes/Rates/Vols – (Bloomberg)
The cost of borrowing gold remains near its highest level since January 2009, reflecting a lack of supply from bullion banks and resilient demand for physical gold products, especially in Asia.
Trading volumes for gold and silver on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) rose to record volumes on Friday, with premiums in Asian gold products remaining at sharply higher levels than in North America and Europe.
Gold premiums in China remain high at nearly $30 per ounce (see table above) an indication of strong demand in the People’s Republic of China and premiums in India remain robust despite the recent fall in demand.
Chinese gold demand remains insatiable with record deliveries being seen on the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE). Physical gold delivered to buyers by China’s largest bullion bourse in the first half of this year almost matched the entire amount taken from its vaults in all of 2012, and was more than double the country’s annual production.
The Shanghai Gold Exchange supplied 1,098 metric tons in the six months through June, compared with 1,139 tons for the whole of last year, according to data from the bourse reported by Bloomberg.


Cross Currency Table  - (Bloomberg)
The surge in deliveries underscores buying interest in China, which is likely to pass India as the largest bullion consumer as early as this year after the government in New Delhi raised import taxes while regulators in Beijing made investing in the metal easier.
Miners, smelters and refineries are required to sell gold via the Shanghai bourse, the only state-sanctioned marketplace for spot bullion in China.


Monthly gold deliveries are now averaging 200 tonnes – they hit a new record of 236 tons in April and then eased to 224 tons in May and 180 tons in June.
Trading of spot bullion of 99.99 percent purity on the Shanghai exchange exceeded 20 tons every day between April 16 and May 6. That’s more than four times the daily average in 2012. Volume reached a record 43.27 metric tons on April 22.
China’s net gold imports from Hong Kong increased 40% in May from a month earlier as the metal’s deepening slump continued to attract bargain hunters to bullion shops in China and Asia.
It is important to note that a slowdown in the Chinese economy may not result in lower Chinese demand. It could indeed, lead to higher demand as Chinese people are buying gold due to concerns about the Chinese financial system and concerns about currency devaluations. These risks would increase should China slowdown or see a recession or depression.

Precious Metals Gain as Cyprus Back-Tracks on Selling Reserves

Precious Metals Gain as Cyprus Back-Tracks on Selling Reserves

PRECIOUS METAL prices rose Tuesday morning in London, after the finance minister of Cyprus said selling some of the debt-laden Mediterranean island’s gold reserves was “only an option” for raising cash.

“The possibility of selling gold is known, but only as an option,” Harris Georgiades told journalists in Nicosia.

“It will be considered, when the time comes, with options, or rather, all other options.”

Last week the Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades said that “I want to believe there will never be such a need” for selling some gold reserves.

“The issue is not being discussed by the government, it is a responsibility of the central bank,” he was quoted by Reuters.

Mid-April’s proposal that Cyprus should sell some of its small gold reserves saw the metal drop more than 15% over the next two trading days.

Despite holding only 13.9 tonnes of gold bullion, the idea was seen by some analysts and traders as “the thin end of the wedge” for other debt-laden countries in the Eurozone.

All told, Eurozone central-bank gold reserves total 10,783 tonnes.

That’s more than one ounce in every three held in official-sector bullion vaults according to data compiled by the World Gold Council.

“The April price moves [after talk of Cyprus' gold sale] severely damaged the notion that gold provides any degree of risk protection or really acts as a safe haven,” says a new gold price forecast from analysts at Citigroup.

“We see little prospect of investors returning to gold in the short or medium term,” they add, forecasting a fresh 3-year low of $1100 per ounce by end-2013.

Technical analysis of the gold price charts by Barclays sees gold falling to that level in just the next two months.

Meantime Tuesday, silver followed the gold price higher, regaining the $20 per ounce level, while European stock markets ticked up.

Commodity prices also rose, as did major government bond prices.

“[Gold] investors remain sidelined,” reckons Xiang Nan, analyst at CITIC Securities Futures Co. in Shanghai, quoted by Bloomberg, “before Bernanke’s testimony [to Congress on Wednesday] for clues on the Fed’s stance on monetary stimulus.”

“Gold price gains are expected to stall around $1300 as physical buyers stay away.”

Ahead of the US Fed chairman’s twice-yearly appearance before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, the US Dollar slipped against the Euro single currency.

That capped gains in the Euro price of gold at €986 per ounce, in line with last week’s close.

April’s initial gold sales plan, proposed by Cyprus’ other Eurozone partners, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, was intended to raise €400 million of a total €10 billion rescue package.

The same quantity of gold bullion if sold at Tuesday’s AM London Gold Fix would have raised only €314 million.

Adrian Ash

Cabelas: Refuse to Hide Medical Excise Tax on Receipts

This is  an image of a sales receipt from Cabela’s, a popular sporting goods store.
The 2.3% Medical Excise Tax that began on January 1st is supposed to be “hidden” from the consumer, but it’s been brought to the public’s attention by hunting and fishing store Cabela’s who have refused to hide it and are showing it as a separate line item tax on their receipts, the email states.
I did some research and found directly from the IRS’s
website information that PROVES this to be true and
an accurate portrayal of something hidden in Obamacare that I was not aware of!
Now being skeptical of this I went to the IRS website and found this!
Q1. What is the medical device excise tax?
A1. Section 4191 of the Internal Revenue Code imposes an excise tax on the sale of certain medical devices by the manufacturer or importer of the device.
Q2. When does the tax go into effect? A2. The tax applies to sales of taxable medical devices after Dec. 31, 2012.
Q3. How much is the tax? A3. The tax is 2.3 percent of the sale price of the taxable medical device. See Chapter 5 of IRS Publication 510, Excise Taxes, and Notice 2012-77 for additional information on the determination of sale price.
IRS.gov    Chapter Five http://www.irs.gov/publications/p510/ch05.html
So being more curious I clicked on “Chapter 5
of IRS Publication 510.” And what do I find under “MEDICAL DEVICES” under “MANUFACTURERS TAXES”?
The following discussion of manufacturers taxes applies to the tax on:
Sport fishing equipment;
Fishing rods and fishing poles;
Electric outboard motors;
Fishing tackle boxes;
Bows, quivers, broadheads, and points;
Arrow shafts;
Coal;
Taxable tires;
Gas guzzler automobiles; and
Vaccines.
IRS.gov
I think we have definitely been fooled, if we believe that the Affordable Care Act is all about health care. It truly does appear to be nothing more than a bill laden with a whole lot of taxes that we the people have yet to be aware of.
Please pass this on. I am still incredulous that this can go on . Where is our press? I guess it’s just like Nancy Pelosi said……. We have to pass it to see what is in it. What is next? What else is there we do not know about?  I am sick to death about our government……all of them!!!!!! This was an email sent to me, please pass this around and join my blog site to send a message to congress and the president, we are not going to take this anymore.
We have all been fooled by the leaders that were voted into office, they lied to us by omission. Do you want to revolt against the TAX MAN? Then we need to send a message to congress that we are on strike and will not pay any taxes this year. I am calling on everyone to refuse to pay your taxes this year.
 I for one have had enough, the IRS and congress lied, cheated, and stolen wealth from the very citizens they are suppose to protect and work for. It’s time they got notice; we are not going to fund a government that steals from the citizens to create a welfare state.

Ageing Britain 'faces up to five more decades of austerity’

The cost of health care and supporting Britain’s ageing population will mean the country facing more years of austerity measures, the Government’s official forecaster will warn this week.

 
The most significant boost to the UK’s growth prospects will come from a recovery in exports and business investment beginning next year, according to ITEM.

Another £50bn of efficiency measures will be needed over the next 50 years, on top of the current £153bn, to cope with the increasing costs. However, the Office of Budget Responsibility’s observations in its Fiscal Sustainability Report on Wednesday are expected to show that measures taken by the Chancellor have eased the burden since last year.

Plans for an automatic link between the state pension age and life expectancy should reduce future costs, economists said. The Chancellor’s planned welfare cap and other benefit cuts since last year are also expected to keep a lid on liabilities. Last year, the OBR estimated that the cost of ageing would add £65bn to the deficit in today’s money.

Alongside the improvement in the long-term prospects for the country, the immediate outlook for the economy is looking better.

According to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club report, the recovery is now “established” and Britain is poised for a long-awaited revival in exports and business investment. The economy will grow by 1.1pc this year, picking up to 2.2pc in 2014 and 2.6pc in 2015.

“It’s looking much more positive and we’re unlikely to see a repeat of 2011 when a recovery in confidence was crushed by the euro crisis,” said Peter Spencer, chief economic adviser to ITEM.

“Spending on the high street is holding up nicely, housing market transactions are beginning to gather pace and, perhaps most significantly, the global economy also appears to be on the mend.
“In fact, it’s the first time in many months where we can see balanced growth in the economy.”
The most significant boost to the UK’s growth prospects will come from a recovery in exports and business investment beginning next year, according to ITEM.
Net trade — the UK’s balance of imports and exports — dragged on GDP over 2012, but as demand from the economic powerhouses of the US and China improves, UK exports should increase by 1.2pc this year and 4.6pc in 2014. Meanwhile, as firms grow in confidence, they should stop hoarding their cash and start spending on investment and recruitment. In the meantime, ITEM says consumer spending and housing market activity will support growth.
More than 1 million people will move home this year, it predicts. House prices should rise as activity picks up, increasing by 2.3pc — roughly the pace of inflation — in 2013, and accelerating to 5.5pc in 2014 and 6.3pc in 2015.
Consumer spending will also increase, by an expected 1.6pc this year and 1.9pc in the next, albeit as people dip into their savings to keep spending. Saving ratios will drop to 5.6pc from 6.3pc last year, under the projections.
The generally upbeat forecast comes after data last week supported hopes that the recovery is gaining momentum and the International Monetary Fund upgraded its 2013 growth forecast for the UK from 0.7pc to 0.9pc.