CNN, News You Can Trust...

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/09/jon-stewart-cnn-jodi-arias-nancy-grace_n_3244730.html

Grant Williams on Broken Markets

1. If the global economy is stalling, Europe is in recession, China is slowing and growth is seemingly impossible to generate, what are equity markets doing at all-time highs?

2. If Chinese manufacturing has stalled, demand for raw materials is slumping, imports AND exports are declining and Chinese power consumption is falling, how is China's GDP growing at 7.7%?

3. The absurdity of France.

4. The Gold Price and The Price of Gold are mutually exclusive


Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-26/grant-williams-do-math

Farewell America: It's Been a Good Ride for Those Who Profited From Bad Policy

10 Amazing Charts That Demonstrate The Slow, Agonizing Death Of The American Worker

By Michael, on May 16th, 2013

The middle class American worker is in danger of becoming an endangered species.  The politicians are not telling you the truth, and the mainstream media is certainly not telling you the truth, but the reality is that there is nothing but bad news on the horizon for workers in the United States.  In the old days, when the big corporations that dominate our society did well, that also meant good things for American workers since those corporations would need more of us to work for them.  But in the emerging one world economic system that our economy is being merged into, those corporations have other choices now.  For instance, the big corporations can now choose to limit the number of "expensive" American workers that they employ by shipping millions of jobs to the other side of the world.  And from their perspective, it makes perfect sense.  They can make much bigger profits by hiring people on the other side of the planet to work for them for less than a dollar an hour.  If they can get good production out of those people, then why should they hire Americans for ten to twenty times as much, plus have to give those Americans health insurance and other benefits?  Another major factor in the slow, agonizing death of the American worker is technology.  We live during a period when technology is advancing at a pace that is almost unimaginable at the same time that it is steadily becoming cheaper and cheaper.  That means that it is going to become easier and easier for companies to replace workers with robots and computers.  As I have written about previously, it is being projected that our economy will lose millions of jobs to technology in the coming years.  Yes, some of us will still be needed to help build the robots and the computers, but not all of us will.  And of course the overall general weakness of the economy is not helping matters either.  The American people inherited the greatest economic machine in the history of the world, and we have wrecked it.  Decades of very foolish decisions have resulted in the period of steady economic decline that we are experiencing now.

America is simply not the economic powerhouse that it once was.  Back in 2001, the U.S. economy accounted for 31.8 percent of global GDP.  By 2011, the U.S. economy only accounted for 21.6 percent of global GDP.  That is a collapse any way that you want to look at it.

Today, American workers are living in an economy that is rapidly declining, and their jobs are steadily being stolen by robots, computers and foreign workers that live in countries where it is legal to pay slave labor wages.  Politicians from both political parties refuse to do anything to stop the bleeding because they think that the status quo is working just great.

So don't expect things to get better any time soon.

The following are 10 amazing charts that demonstrate the slow, agonizing death of the American worker...

#1 Wages And Salaries As A Percentage Of GDP

As you can see, wages as a percentage of GDP are hovering near an all-time record low.  That means that American workers are bringing home a smaller share of the economic pie than ever before.

#2 Average Annual Hours Worked Per Employed Person In The United States

We are an economy that is rapidly trading good paying full-time jobs for low paying part-time jobs.  The decline in average annual hours worked that we have witnessed represents the equivalent of losing millions of jobs.  There has been an explosion of "the working poor" in the United States, and this trend is probably only going to accelerate in the years to come.

#3 Manufacturing Employment

As you can see, there are less Americans working in manufacturing today than there was in 1950 even though the population of the country has more than doubled since then.  The United States has lost more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities since 2001, and yet our politicians stand around and do nothing about it.

#4 Employment-Population Ratio

This is one of my favorite charts.  It shows that there has been absolutely no employment recovery at all since the end of the last recession.  The percentage of working age Americans that have a job has stayed under 59 percent for 44 months in a row.  How much worse will things get when the next major economic downturn strikes?

#5 Labor Force Participation Rate

This is how the Obama administration is getting the "unemployment rate" to magically go down.  They are pretending that millions upon millions of Americans simply do not want to work anymore.  As you will notice, the decline of the labor force participation rate has accelerated greatly since Barack Obama entered the White House.

#6 Duration Of Unemployment

The average amount of time that it takes an unemployed worker to find a new job has declined slightly, but it is still far above normal historical levels.  It is a crying shame that it takes the average unemployed worker two-thirds of a year to find a new job, but this is the new economic reality that we are all living in.

#7 Delinquency Rate On Residential Mortgages

Since there are not enough jobs for all of us, and since our wages are not rising as rapidly as the cost of living is, a whole bunch of us are falling behind on our mortgages.  As you can see, the mortgage delinquency rate has only dropped slightly and is still way, way above typical levels.

#8 New Homes Sold

American workers also don't have enough money to go out and buy new homes either.  Yes, new home sales have rebounded slightly this year, but we are nowhere near where we used to be.

#9 Consumer Credit

Millions of American families continue to resort to going into debt in a desperate attempt to make ends meet.  After a slight interruption during the last recession, consumer credit once again is growing at a frightening pace.

#10 Self-Employment At A Record Low



Since there aren't enough jobs for everyone, why aren't more Americans trying to start their own businesses?  Well, the reality of the matter is that the government has made it exceedingly difficult to start your own business today.  Taxes, rules, regulations and red tape are choking the life out of millions of small businesses in the United States.  As a result, the percentage of self-employed Americans is at a record low.

As all of these long-term trends continue, the middle class will continue to shrink, poverty in America will continue to explode and government dependence will continue to rise.

The numbers don't lie.  Today, the number of Americans on Social Security Disability now exceeds the entire population of Greece, and the number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the entire population of Spain.

We are in the midst of a horrifying economic collapse, and the next major wave of that collapse is rapidly approaching.

Are you ready?

Source: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/10-amazing-charts-that-demonstrate-the-slow-agonizing-death-of-the-american-worker
Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-16/10-perspectives-slow-agonizing-death-american-worker

Japan: The Beginning of the Inevitable End

Keiser Report: Sacred Dow (E445)

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=L9ZiusA9AxE

Ever Get That Feeling Things Won't Improve?

40 Statistics About The Fall Of The U.S. Economy That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe

By Michael, on May 26th, 2013 

If you know someone that actually believes that the U.S. economy is in good shape, just show them the statistics in this article.  When you step back and look at the long-term trends, it is undeniable what is happening to us.  We are in the midst of a horrifying economic decline that is the result of decades of very bad decisions.  30 years ago, the U.S. national debt was about one trillion dollars.  Today, it is almost 17 trillion dollars.  40 years ago, the total amount of debt in the United States was about 2 trillion dollars.  Today, it is more than 56 trillion dollars.  At the same time that we have been running up all of this debt, our economic infrastructure and our ability to produce wealth has been absolutely gutted.  Since 2001, the United States has lost more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities and millions of good jobs have been shipped overseas.  Our share of global GDP declined from 31.8 percent in 2001 to 21.6 percent in 2011.  The percentage of Americans that are self-employed is at a record low, and the percentage of Americans that are dependent on the government is at a record high.  The U.S. economy is a complete and total mess, and it is time that we faced the truth.

The following are 40 statistics about the fall of the U.S. economy that are almost too crazy to believe...

#1 Back in 1980, the U.S. national debt was less than one trillion dollars.  Today, it is rapidly approaching 17 trillion dollars...

#2 During Obama's first term, the federal government accumulated more debt than it did under the first 42 U.S presidents combined.

#3 The U.S. national debt is now more than 23 times larger than it was when Jimmy Carter became president.

#4 If you started paying off just the new debt that the U.S. has accumulated during the Obama administration at the rate of one dollar per second, it would take more than 184,000 years to pay it off.

#5 The federal government is stealing more than 100 million dollars from our children and our grandchildren every single hour of every single day.

#6 Back in 1970, the total amount of debt in the United States (government debt + business debt + consumer debt, etc.) was less than 2 trillion dollars.  Today it is over 56 trillion dollars...

#7 According to the World Bank, U.S. GDP accounted for 31.8 percentof all global economic activity in 2001.  That number dropped to 21.6 percent in 2011.

#8 The United States has fallen in the global economic competitiveness rankings compiled by the World Economic Forum for four years in a row.

#9 According to The Economist, the United States was the best place in the world to be born into back in 1988.  Today, the United States is only tied for 16th place.

#10 Incredibly, more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities in the United States have been permanently shut down since 2001.

#11 There are less Americans working in manufacturing today than there was in 1950 even though the population of the country has more than doubled since then.

#12 According to the New York Times, there are now approximately 70,000 abandoned buildings in Detroit.

#13 When NAFTA was pushed through Congress in 1993, the United States had a trade surplus with Mexico of 1.6 billion dollars.  By 2010, we had a trade deficit with Mexico of 61.6 billion dollars.

#14 Back in 1985, our trade deficit with China was approximately 6million dollars (million with a little "m") for the entire year.  In 2012, our trade deficit with China was 315 billion dollars.  That was the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world.

#15 Overall, the United States has run a trade deficit of more than 8 trillion dollars with the rest of the world since 1975.

#16 According to the Economic Policy Institute, the United States is losing half a million jobs to China every single year.

#17 Back in 1950, more than 80 percent of all men in the United States had jobs.  Today, less than 65 percent of all men in the United States have jobs.

#18 At this point, an astounding 53 percent of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year.

#19 Small business is rapidly dying in America.  At this point, only about 7 percent of all non-farm workers in the United States are self-employed.  That is an all-time record low.

#20 Back in 1983, the bottom 95 percent of all income earners in the United States had 62 cents of debt for every dollar that they earned.  By 2007, that figure had soared to $1.48.

#21 In the United States today, the wealthiest one percent of all Americans have a greater net worth than the bottom 90 percent combined.

#22 According to Forbes, the 400 wealthiest Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans combined.

#23 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have as much wealth as the bottom one-third of all Americans combined.

#24 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 146 million Americans are either "poor" or "low income".

#25 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 49 percent of all Americans live in a home that receives direct monetary benefits from the federal government.  Back in 1983, less than a third of all Americans lived in a home that received direct monetary benefits from the federal government.

#26 Overall, the federal government runs nearly 80 different "means-tested welfare programs", and at this point more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one of them.

#27 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid.  Today, one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid, and things are about to get a whole lot worse.  It is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.

#28 As I wrote recently, it is being projected that the number of Americans on Medicare will grow from 50.7 million in 2012 to 73.2 million in 2025.

#29 At this point, Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars over the next 75 years.  That comes to approximately$328,404 for every single household in the United States.

#30 Right now, there are approximately 56 million Americans collecting Social Security benefits.  By 2035, that number is projected to soar to an astounding 91 million.

#31 Overall, the Social Security system is facing a 134 trillion dollar shortfall over the next 75 years.

#32 Today, the number of Americans on Social Security Disability now exceeds the entire population of Greece, and the number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the entire population of Spain.

#33 According to a report recently issued by the Pew Research Center, on average Americans over the age of 65 have 47 times as much wealth as Americans under the age of 35.

#34 U.S. families that have a head of household that is under the age of 30 have a poverty rate of 37 percent.

#35 As I mentioned recently, the homeownership rate in America is now at its lowest level in nearly 18 years.

#36 There are now 20.2 million Americans that spend more than half of their incomes on housing.  That represents a 46 percent increase from 2001.

#37 45 percent of all children are living in poverty in Miami, more than 50 percent of all children are living in poverty in Cleveland, and about 60 percent of all children are living in poverty in Detroit.

#38 Today, more than a million public school students in the United States are homeless.  This is the first time that has ever happened in our history.

#39 When Barack Obama first entered the White House, about 32 million Americans were on food stamps.  Now, more than 47 million Americans are on food stamps.

#40 According to one calculation, the number of Americans on food stamps now exceeds the combined populations of "Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming."

Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-27/40-frightening-facts-fall-us-economy
Source: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/40-statistics-about-the-fall-of-the-u-s-economy-that-are-almost-too-crazy-to-believe

John Perkins: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

Now that Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is dead, talking heads are yapping about how great it would be if Venezuela "opens up to the world" -- i.e. allows the developed world to go in there and get its oil.

It reminded me of John Perkins' Economic Hit Man youtube video.

General Overview of his book:

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is John Perkins' fast-paced autobiography, which reveals his career as an economist for an international consulting firm. Perkins says he was actually an "Economic Hit Man." His job was to convince countries that are strategically important to the United States to accept enormous loans for infrastructure development and to make sure that the lucrative projects were contracted to U.S. corporations.

Perkins takes the reader through his career and explains how he created economic projections for countries to accept billions of dollars in loans they surely couldn't afford. He shares his battle with his conscience over these actions and offers advice for how Americans can work to end these practices which have directly resulted in terrorist attacks and animosity towards the United States.

What Is An Economic Hit Man?

Perkins defines economic hit men as "highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign ‘aid' organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization."


Source: http://www.wanttoknow.info/johnperkinseconomichitman
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiAMN5awLYw
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/05/us-venezuela-chavez-idUSBRE92405420130305

China's Housing Bubble, Only One Way to End...

Hopefully you're not an owner of multiple Chinese condos. Hopefully you won't be impacted when the savings of millions of its middle-class are wiped out when the bubble bursts. Hopefully you don't work at a co. or own shares of a co. that exports to China (2011 exports from the US to China were over $100 billion). Or hopefully, this is not a bubble. Or hopefully, this is a bubble and will not burst.

Keep up the good hope.




Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50142079n
Source: http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html
Source: https://www.uschina.org/statistics/tradetable.html

See more: http://stockuponcannedgoods.blogspot.com/2012/04/ghost-towns-of-china.html

Our Country's Critical-Thinking News Outlets

Further proof that our news outlets are full of critical- and independent-thinking journalists and newscasters.



Source: http://www.alt-market.com/articles/1355-conan-obrien-exposes-the-totally-controlled-and-scripted-mainstream-media
Source: http://vigilantcitizen.com/latestnews/conan-obrian-proof-that-media-is-controlled-by-outside-sources-video/

In Case You Become Really Rich...

Source: TopAccountingDegrees.org
Source: http://www.topaccountingdegrees.org/taxes/
Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-15/how-super-rich-avoid-paying-taxes

Two Cows Explain Governments and Businesses

http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/6653870_700b.jpg

Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-26/two-cows-infographic

The Fed Says the US has experienced decades of "Low Inflation" so Therefore, It's True?

Or perhaps not. Solution: Don't drive. Or eat.

Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-27/bernankes-inflation-record

DJIA and S&P500 Toppy?

Dow Jones Industrial Average:

S&P 500:

Think back to 2000 (Internet craze) and 2007 (America's largest housing bubble). What do we have in 2013? Perhaps it's the Fed's 3 trillion dollar money-printing fest fueling search for yield as it has driven down interest rates to historic lows attempting to reflate the housing market.

Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-01/bubble-margin
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/warning-stocks-likely-to-crater-2013-2

The Young and the Restless

Well, it could be worse...

But for how much longer?

Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-01/europes-scariest-chart-update-italy-now-worse-portugal

Visualizing All The Silver In The World

Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-01/visualizing-all-silver-world
Source: http://demonocracy.info/infographics/world/silver/silver.html

Olafur Ragnar Grimsson Iceland president: Let banks go bankrupt

"Why do we consider banks to be like holy churches?"


Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-26/only-3-minutes-worth-listening-davos
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=51-Jfh6ADH0

Tom DeMark: Sell Around the World

Perhaps it's time to take some money off the table, i.e. get out of stocks...

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/video/tom-demark-sell-around-the-world-KdBPeJbXQXqvlShFYHL7Jw.html

America: Get Ready for Real News

Al Jazeera Media Network has announced that it has acquired US cable channel Current TV.

The Qatar-based network said on Thursday that with the acquisition it plans to create Al Jazeera America, a US-based news channel. Al Jazeera’s coverage will soon be available in more than 40 million US households, up from 4.7 million prior to the deal.

Link to video: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/01/2013132255769130.html

Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/01/2013132255769130.html

America, Continuing to Arm Itself

- FBI checks for all of 2012 totaled 19.6 million, an annual record and an increase of 19 percent over 2011.
- The numbers from the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System does not show how many firearms buyers actually took home from federally licensed gun stores. Some purchasers may have bought more than one weapon.
- The figures do not represent the number of firearms sold, a statistic the government does not track. They also do not reflect activity between private parties, such as family members or collectors, because federal law requires background checks only for sales from commercial vendors with a federal license.
- The system does not account for all U.S. gun purchases, however. Many gun shows are not covered and private sales, such as one hunter selling a weapon to another, also are not subject to checks

Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-02/gun-sales-background-checks-hit-record
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/02/us/background-checks-guns/index.html
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/02/background-checks-guns_n_2398297.html

US Debt: Nothing to See Here, Move it Along...

Do you like hockey? Our Fed does.

Here's the amount of Total US Federal Debt:

Here it is as of Dec. 31, 2012:

And here is our Debt to GDP:

 Worried that it's over 100%, don't be. Please follow this instructional graphic:

Source: http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/GFDEBTN
Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-02/total-debt-1643273005056912-debt-gdp-103

GATA's Chris Powell on Gold and Silver Manipulation

On the CFTC's 4-year investigation into silver manipulation, central banks' gold holdings, the London Gold Pool in the 1960s, the BIS, and gold leasing.

From August 2012:


Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0jpso4jDC4
Source: http://www.gata.org/

Fiat Currencies

Don't worry, everything will be alright.

But just in case, you might want to reconsider holding that paper money.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY1EcCUu5nw
Source: http://www.cliffkule.com/2012_12_16_archive.html