Fascist Empire Planet (Archive)

It takes ever increasing amounts of money to create just a few manufacturing jobs. Here is a case in point. Please consider Chrysler pledges $550M to build Fiat 500 in Mexico.

Chrysler Group LLC says it will invest $550 million to build the Fiat 500 minicar at its assembly plant near Mexico City.

Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne says the new work at its Toluca plant will create 400 jobs. He said Monday the company will begin making the model in December for U.S. and Latin American markets.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon says Chrysler will produce between 100,000 and 130,000 vehicles at the plant, creating about 1,200 indirect jobs. Chrysler says the Mexican government has provided a $400 million incentive package for the project, the majority of it as loans.

Giant Sucking Sound?

Wow. A mere 400 people can produce between 100,000 and 130,000 vehicles a year.

Ross Perot talked about the Giant Sucking Sound of free trade.

The reality is that in the grand scheme of of 10.8 million unemployed, 400 jobs (1,600 if you count indirect jobs) is statistically meaningless.

Manufacturing jobs are not vanishing because of free trade, they are vanishing because assembly lines have been replaced by robots everywhere. Even China is losing manufacturing jobs.

Think of the Implications

• Think of the competition for jobs from those currently unemployed.
• Think of the competition for jobs from those graduating from high school.
• Think of the competition for jobs from those who are about to graduate from college.
• Think about the future competition for jobs from those who decide to stay in college to earn a masters or PhD because there are no jobs now.
• Think about those wanting to retire but can't so they compete against their kids and grandkids for jobs.
• Think what that competition will do to wages.
• Think what that competition will do to benefits.

Think!



Most of all, think about the attitudes of unions and politicians who want your taxes to go up to support salaries and benefits of union workers that far exceed what the private sectors receive.

After thinking about all that, think about voting against any candidate supported by the teachers' union, the firefighters' union, the police union, or for that matter any union.

Don't Just Think, Act!

Vote against any candidate who wants to raise your taxes to benefit themselves. How do you find those candidates? It's easy. Vote against any candidate supported by the teachers' union, the firefighters' union, the police union, or for that matter any union.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List
Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 09, 2010 07:43 AM

Anne Brown worries that someone could gain access to the DNA sample from her daughter Isabel with Isabel’s name attached CNN | Feb 4, 2010 By Elizabeth Cohen, CNN Senior Medical Correspondent (CNN) — When Annie Brown’s daughter, Isabel, was a month old, her pediatrician asked Brown and her husband to sit down because he had some bad [...]

February 09, 2010 07:36 AM

PZ Myers, author of the science blog Pharyngula and biology professor at the University of Minnesota, USA, will speak at an Atheist Ireland meeting at Buswells Hotel, Dublin, at 7.30 pm tomorrow, Monday 1st February.

Admission is free, and members of the public are welcome.

The theme will be the Atheist Ireland campaigns against the Irish blasphemy law, and for a secular constitution and a secular education system.

The following quote from PZ Myers about the desecration of communion hosts is among the 25 blasphemous quotes that Atheist published a month ago when the Irish blasphemy law became operational:

“You would not believe how many people are writing to me, insisting that these horrible little crackers (they look like flattened bits of styrofoam) are literally pieces of their god, and that this omnipotent being who created the universe can actually be seriously harmed by some third-rate liberal intellectual at a third-rate university… However, inspired by an old woodcut of Jews stabbing the host, I thought of a simple, quick thing to do: I pierced it with a rusty nail (I hope Jesus’s tetanus shots are up to date). And then I simply threw it in the trash, followed by the classic, decorative items of trash cans everywhere, old coffeegrounds and a banana peel.”

While in Ireland, PZ will also be speaking about science and creationism at UCD on Tuesday Feb 2nd, and at NUI Galway on Thursday February 4th, at meetings organised by the UCD Secular Humanist Society and the NUI Galway Skeptic Society and ZooSoc. You can get details on tickets for these events, subject to availability, by emailing ucdhumanistsociety@gmail.com or k.mcinerney3@nuigalway.ie

February 09, 2010 07:11 AM

A blasphemy art exhibition in Dublin during February is a direct response to the new Irish blasphemy law. It’s a fascinating show, and well worth a visit.

It is on in the Oonagh Young Gallery in James Joyce Street (formerly Corporation Street) off Talbot Street until Saturday 27 February, and is open from 12 to 6pm every Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

This Wednesday at 7pm there is a special screening of Rocky Road to Dublin and The Making of Rocky Road to Dublin, which should be watched by anyone interested in secularism and censorship in Ireland.

February 09, 2010 07:09 AM

One of the many massive distortions caused by the Fed's miserable policies is hitting hard on senior citizens who cannot afford stock market losses but need fixed income to live on.

"California Banker" writes

Hey Mish

During the past several weeks we've had a lot of seniors coming to the bank as their certificate of deposits of mature. They are very disgruntled about the rate environment in general as bank rates are much lower than a year ago.

Many of these seniors are 70 and up and are using the interest to live on in retirement, so their interest income has taken a hit. I imagine most of those living off their interest will likely need to burn net worth to maintain living expense.

Some are moving their deposits to banking institution that a paying a slightly higher rate, which is typically an institution that is struggling and needs the deposit.

"California Banker"

To make a few extra pennies, senior citizens pull money out of rock solid institutions in favor of pathetically undercapitalized, troubled banks. But hey, it's FDIC insured. Why not?

Hello Sheila Bair, can't you see what's happening?

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post ListMike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 09, 2010 05:07 AM

February 09, 2010 04:05 AM

Federation expects to start vaccinating about 1,800 people Monday at a camp on the old airport runway, then move on to hundreds of other camps over the next two weeks 08 Feb 2010 'Aid' groups say they are launching an emergency vaccination campaign for 140,000 people in Haiti to 'protect them against' measles and other diseases. The campaign is being conducted by the international Red Cross federation, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the Haitian Health Ministry. A Red Cross statement says the campaign will focus on the capital Port-au-Prince because the disease risk to earthquake victims there is greatest. [There's no food, but Haitians can always count on the US Army, mercenaries, and pharmaterrorists' mercury-laden vaccines in any crisis.]

February 09, 2010 03:28 AM

The latest Hollywood blockbuster Sherlock Holmes revolves around occult murders and world conspiracies. The movie is riddled with occult symbols and allusions to a “New Order”. We’ll look at the history of Sherlock Holmes, the origins of the symbols found within the movie and its meaning in today’s  context. Inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s [...]

February 09, 2010 02:14 AM

Treasury secretary Tim Geithner, who arguably belongs in prison for his role in the AIG bailout coverup, is back in the news again.

Please consider Geithner Says U.S. Will ‘Never’ Lose Aaa Debt Rating.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the U.S. is in no danger of losing its Aaa debt rating even though the Obama administration has predicted a $1.6 trillion budget deficit in 2010.

“Absolutely not,” Geithner said, when asked in an ABC News interview broadcast yesterday whether a downgrade is a concern. “That will never happen to this country.”

Geithner said investors around the world turn to U.S. Treasury securities and dollar-denominated assets whenever they are worried about global stability. That reflects “basic confidence” in the U.S. and its ability to bounce back from the global recession, he said.

Moody’s Investors Service Inc. last week said the U.S. government’s bond rating will come under pressure in the future unless additional measures are taken to reduce budget deficits projected for the next decade.

The U.S. plans to rein in the deficit once the labor market recovers, Geithner said.

Famous Last Words

Notice Geithner's condition to rein in the deficit "once the labor market recovers". The problem is meeting that clause. A labor market recovery might be a decade away or more depending on the meaning of "recovery".

In response to Geithner's pomp ...

My friend "HB" says "File under famous last words".

My friend "BC" says "Geithner serves stateless elites who can say this with full confidence that their wealth and privilege will remain intact no matter what happens to the real US or global economy and sovereign debt situation in the US and the world. The key for those of us not secure within the rentier Power Elite caste is to continue to make arrangements for escape plans to try to mitigate the worse effects of sovereign defaults, currency devaluations, capital controls, confiscation, etc."

Meaning Of Never

I want to focus on the meaning of "never". Is this the start of one of those what's the meaning of 'is' kind of discussions we had with Clinton? I hope not.

Please note Moody's rare display of courage to downgrade Enron from investment grade to junk on November 8, 2001.



On December 2, 2001 Enron filed bankruptcy.

Notice how Moody's displayed remarkable courage and foresight with a timely downgrade of Enron from investment status to junk a full 3 weeks before Enron was delisted. Indeed the chart shows how much on the ball Moody's was (and still is).

Game Is Rigged

Bear in mind that the big three rating agencies (Moody's, Fitch, and the S&P) have government sponsorship, thus the game is rigged. Please see Time To Break Up The Credit Rating Cartel for details.

As long as the game is rigged (and it is very rigged), US debt will continue to be AAA rated until even pathetic Moody's cannot take it anymore, or governments sponsorship of the big three ends.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post ListMike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 08, 2010 11:34 PM

Our cell phones aren't just for calls anymore. They hold our address books, our calendars, our emails, and our grocery lists. They may even include things like a list of questions to ask your doctor, pictures of your girlfriend, or URLs of web sites you've visited. When can police search your phone and look at all this information?

That's the question that EFF is asking a court in California to consider. In People v. Taylor, police in Daly City, California seized a suspect's iPhone during his arrest. Hours later, investigators bypassed the password and searched through the data on the device without a search warrant. After the officers realized that the information was too extensive to write down, they finally obtained a warrant to search the phone.

EFF has urged the court to suppress evidence gathered by police from the suspect's phone during the warrantless search, including contacts, called phone numbers, emails, text messages, Internet search history, and photos. EFF has also asked the judge to quash the warrant that was eventually issued in part based on the information illegally accessed on the phone.

Of course, criminal suspects will have a lot of information on their cell phones that might be of interest to police, and when investigators have enough evidence to get a warrant, they should be able to search these devices. But if the police can search anyone's cell phone at any time, then everyone's privacy is at risk.

The court will hear the motion on February 18 at 9:00 a.m. in Redwood City, California.

February 08, 2010 10:09 PM

February 08, 2010 10:09 PM

Google's ad during yesterday's Superbowl explained in less than a minute how the story of someone's life can be pieced together from their search queries. Using only the search terms and user's clicks of the search results, Google told the story of a user who seeks love while studying abroad in Paris, finds it, moves to Paris, marries and has a child.

The poignant story, along with Google's suite of search stories, masterfully illustrate how some of the most intimate information in our lives--from planning a trip to political activism--are routinely and vividly expressed in our interactions with Google, and highlights the need for that information to have strong protections.

The Superbowl ad was Google's first foray into national television advertising, and its great that Google used this opportunity to illustrate the importance of search privacy to one of the world's largest audiences. Now that Google has shown how personal its records of user interaction are, it should follow through and protect that information from involuntary disclosure by anonymizing search queries. Microsoft's Bing is anonymizing this information after six months by deleting the entire Internet Protocol ("IP") address associated with your search queries. Google can and should anonymize search queries in the same way after six months or less.

February 08, 2010 08:08 PM

A convicted felon cannot be deported because tattooed criminals like him are often harassed by gangs and police in his native El Salvador, according to a federal appellate court that overruled both an immigration judge and the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals.

The preposterous ruling was issued a few days ago by the abhorrently liberal and frequently overturned 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The case involves a violent multiple offender from El Salvador (Gregory Aguilar-Ramos) who has been convicted in the United States of serious crimes, including robbery and theft with priors. 

As a child the felon became a U.S. resident but, under federal law, his felony convictions require he be deported. In 2005 the Department of Homeland Security began the process, citing his conviction of an aggravated felony and two violent crimes of moral turpitude. A year later Aguilar-Ramos sought asylum, claiming that he feared gangs and police in El Salvador would target him because of his “multiple tattoos” and “status as a deportee from the United States.” 

An immigration judge denied the petition, citing the criminal’s failure to prove that he faced torture in his native country. The Board of Immigration Appeals, the nation’s highest administrative body for interpreting and applying immigration laws, agreed with the decision and Aguilar-Ramos appealed to the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit. The case was argued in the southern California city of Pasadena a few months ago.

The sympathetic three-judge panel based its decision largely on the testimony of an “expert” who monitors gangs and police in El Salvador. He testified that deportees like Aguilar face years in jail, death or serious injury in prison as well as harassment by police or military patrols. In some cases, they face “death squads” that operate with the awareness of the government,” according to the 10-page ruling. 

Before deporting Aguilar to El Salvador immigration officials must seriously consider that police and gangs in the tiny Central American nation harass, persecute and kill tattooed criminal deportees like him, the decision says. 

These sorts of outrageous rulings are par for the course for the western appeals court, the largest of the nation’s 13 appellate courts. The 9th Circuit is best known for getting overturned by the Supreme Court more than any other. This term alone, the High Court reversed 94% of its rulings in cases involving issues such as civil rights, prisoners’ rights and environmental protection. 

Last year the 9th Circuit Court’s chief justice, Alex Kozinski, was embroiled in an embarrassing scandal for operating a publicly accessible website containing sexually explicit and offensive images. The judge’s salacious website became an issue in the obscenity trial of a Hollywood adult filmmaker that he presided over.

February 08, 2010 08:03 PM

	Godfrey Bloom lambasts EU Thieves' Cartel ► European Parliament, Strasbourg - 08.02.2010 ► Speaker: Godfrey Bloom MEP, UKIP, EFD group. ► Debate: Administrative cooperation in the field of taxation .................................. ► Video: European Parliament Audio Visual .................................. ► EUMember States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, United Kingdom ► Other states in Europe: Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Faroes, Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Transdniestria (Transnistria), Belarus, Turkey, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Abkhazia, South Ossetia.	From: europarl Views: 308 73 ratings
	Time: 01:48	More in Nonprofits & Activism

February 08, 2010 06:54 PM

German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle has called for the EU to proceed with plans for a European army under the Lisbon Treaty, which he dubbed “the beginning and not the end” of a common security and defence policy.

His remarks at the annual Munich Security Conference followed a call by Berlin’s defense minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg to end what he called Nato’s “absurd” practice of unanimous decision-making.

“The (Lisbon) treaty lays out a common security and defence policy. The federal government wants to make progress on this front,” said Mr Westerwelle. “The long-term goal is to build up a European army under parliamentary control. The EU has to live up to political expectations of its role as a global player.” The foreign minister sketched out a role for such an army as crisis management in a time of resource scarcity, to be developed by willing member states over time as a “motor for closer co-operation” in the EU. In a nod to Nato, Mr Westerwelle said such EU structures would not replace other military structures.

more in Irish Times

February 08, 2010 06:47 PM

Last week, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) placed a “hold” on all of the Obama Administration nominations that are pending before the Senate, thereby preventing a vote on their confirmation.  There are said to be at least 70 such nominations awaiting Senate action, including those of several senior defense and intelligence officials.  Sen. Shelby, a man of flexible principles who has served as both a Democrat and a Republican, reportedly adopted the blanket holds in an attempt to compel the Administration to award certain defense contracts to his home state of Alabama.

Shelby’s action is “outlandish,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on the Senate floor last Thursday.  But that was as far as he was prepared to go, or perhaps farther than he intended to go.  Striking a tactical retreat, he immediately added: “I can’t imagine this is the right thing to do.”

The new obstructionism has the potential to cripple the U.S. government, warned Paul Krugman today in the New York Times, and to do so in a particularly pointless and humiliating way:  “Instead of re-enacting the decline and fall of Rome, we’re re-enacting the dissolution of 18th-century Poland,” he wrote.

Confronted with rampant irresponsibility and procedural abuse, the White House and the Majority party are not — or should not be — helpless to respond.  In theory, their options include recess appointments to circumvent the Senate confirmation process, and the so-called “nuclear” option to alter existing Senate procedures.  These alternatives, along with related background, have been usefully described in a series of reports from the Congressional Research Service (all pdf).

“Recess Appointments: Frequently Asked Questions,” updated March 12, 2008.

“‘Entrenchment’ of Senate Procedure and the ‘Nuclear Option’ for Change: Possible Proceedings and Their Implications,” March 28, 2005.

“Cloture Attempts on Nominations,” March 30, 2009.

“‘Holds’ in the Senate,” May 19, 2008.

“Senate Policy on ‘Holds’: Action in the 110th Congress,” March 14, 2008.

“Filibusters and Cloture in the Senate,” March 28, 2003.

“Minority Rights and Senate Procedures,” August 22, 2005.

February 08, 2010 06:23 PM

Several recent reports from the Congressional Research Service provide descriptive profiles of the present and past composition of Congress by race, ethnicity, gender, education, religion and occupation (all pdf).

“Membership of the 111th Congress: A Profile,” February 4, 2010.

“Women in the United States Congress: 1917-2009,” December 23, 2009.

“Asian Pacific Americans in the United States Congress,” February 1, 2010.

“African-American Members of the United States Congress: 1870-2009,” February 2, 2010.

February 08, 2010 06:19 PM

New reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following (pdf):

“Al Qaeda and Affiliates: Historical Perspective, Global Presence, and Implications for U.S. Policy,” February 5, 2010.

“The Rum Excise Tax Cover-Over: Legislative History and Current Issues,” January 20, 2010.

February 08, 2010 06:17 PM

David Cameron's speech infront of a photogenic youff audience today had some things to recomend it. Support for the UKIP policy of recall for one, however a mjor piece of his new policy seems slightly too little, too late,

Any petition with a million signatures will allow members of the public to table a Bill that could end up being debated and voted on by MPs

If a million signatures are collected there should be a National Referendum on the policy. In that way it would be a true national debate rather than a debate by his hand picked MPs.

He even followed this idea by highlighting the way in which the country was railroaded into the Lisbon Treaty,

And one of the biggest constitutional changes in our history - our membership of the European Union - has practically passed Parliament by. We are hopeless, totally hopeless, at scrutinising the European legislation, regulation and spending that affects our country. No wonder people think Parliament has become a waste of space. Much of the time - and thanks in large part to the things this Labour government has done to undermine Parliament - it really is a waste of space.

Well Dave, I can tell you this now, we will provide you with a million signatures on election day, calling for a referendum on our membership of the European union. If you believed, really believed in the people of our land, you would allow them a say in their future, not keep all discussions and decisions to yourself and your cronies in the political elite.

The question remains, do you trust Cameron's Conservatives. After all they promised us a referendum, with a "cast iron guarantee" on the Lisbon Treaty, which he reneged upon.

Allowing a million signatures to call a binding referendum would in the very least keep him and his kind honest.

February 08, 2010 06:10 PM

Just to show you how the deck is stacked against true patriots in favor of union members who have their hands in your pocket, please consider this email from "Stacked Deck" in response to Colton California Considers Disbanding Fire Department.

"Stacked Deck" writes ...

Hi Mish

I’m a big follower of your blog. I love what you are doing, please keep up the good work.

It's interesting that you say Volunteer Fire Departments are the optimal arrangement. I am a 14 year veteran of a “Volley” department in New Jersey, and I have to say the deck is severely stacked against us.

Here’s why.

My father, a 40 year member of our department, joined when he was 21 (the earliest he could back in the day, now we need to be 18 with a GED or diploma). At that time, it was all on the job, and Friday night drill training. Some who felt more motivated would attend fire school if they wanted to, and perhaps attend special classes at the National Fire Academy in Maryland.

Now, as of about 20 years ago, it is mandated that all volunteers in the state must at minimum have Firefighter 1, HAZMAT training, and Blood Borne Pathogens training via the state, and maintain a certain number of credits and continuing education, as well as call levels to stay active. We give 2 Fridays a month, and countless other days for training, and ride approximately 400 calls a year. It’s a big time commitment, but we are motivated and love to do it.

In essence, for me to stand as a volunteer, I must have the same training as a recruit for any paid department in NJ. Firefighter 1 is a 165 hour class that requires at minimum a 3-4 month nightly class schedule, along with all day Saturday live burn training. The time commitment is enormous, especially for a person who is focused on working to maintain a home in an upper-middle class neighborhood. Factor in kids, and a dual income family, and you get the idea as to how this will play out.

The bar is set to high for most who will get little benefit out of becoming a member of the department.

These mandates are all set by the state firemen’s association that is chock full of ex-paid jocks, who are determined to get more and more union jobs in towns they have yet to infiltrate. Princeton and the surrounding communities are a huge example of this. They used to have multiple fire houses and a pool of over 300 volunteers.

As it gets more expensive to live there, they lose the most likely applicants for a volunteer corps, and the bar is set too high. The last I heard they had under 100 left now, and are looking to hire day-call guys to cover. The state mandates that township are required to maintain a certain amount of day-call men, and in comes the union.

Now they are looking to implement another 13 week program to mandate that any officer must complete a 13 week course called Fire Officer 1. Currently, there is only a requirement of I-200, which is basic incident command, which is about 3 evenings of training.

If they can’t mandate out at the firefighter level, at least they’ll try and get in from top down, forcing municipalities to hire a full-time chief or line officers, who in turn will automatically earn 100k+.

The bar keeps getting set higher and higher, with no end in sight. They are systematically trying to ensure there are more paid jobs in New Jersey, at taxpayer expense of course.

Most volunteer departments are trying to fight it, but they rarely take us seriously, as though fire doesn’t burn us the same way because we’re not paid for it, yet we still have all the same training and qualifications.

I work full time on Wall Street, come home most of the time after 12 hours or more, then go to the firehouse for an hour to go on duty and work on maintaining the firehouse and our equipment plus a short training stint.

All told, we calculated that our 54 member department sacrificed over 15,000 man hours between calls, drills, maintenance, and our community outreach programs. And we operate on a budget of around $25,000 from the township, and $30,000 worth of donations or so a year to our Firemen’s Association.

They want to take that option from us, and replace it with paid jobs, because the unions want as many jobs as possible.

I know I save my township well over 3 million a year in salary and pension payments. I’m proud of that. I only hope that it can continue.

"Stacked Deck" is one of the true patriots of this world. He sacrifices his time for the benefit of his community.

Of course the union will argue about proper training etc. I say let the people decide. Put the issue straight to the voters as to what kind of protection they want and at what cost. Even if cities want paid fire departments, there is no reason those jobs should have to be union.

Unions continue their drive to rule all aspects of our lives. The cardinal rule is unions are never satisfied. They will suck the last drop of blood out of every community until the community dries up and shrivels away or goes bankrupt feeding the beast.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post ListMike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 08, 2010 06:09 PM

Although it’s illegal to fund abortions with federal dollars, the Department of Defense will for the first time in history offer a controversial abortion pill at U.S. military bases worldwide.

Best known as the morning after pill, Plan B One-Step will soon become a standard part of every military medical facility’s drug stock, including those in crucial Middle East locations such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The decision to provide female enlistees with the “emergency contraception” was based on a recommendation by an independent advisory panel of military doctors and pharmacists known as the Pentagon’s Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee. 

The committee’s recommendation was approved last week by the Pentagon's acting assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, Allen Middleton. In November the panel received an anonymous request to consider adding the emergency abortion pill as a mandatory drug in Defense Department health facilities, according to minutes from its meeting. The order could have easily come from the Secretary of State, who as a New York senator, pushed hard to make the pill available without a prescription. Judicial Watch filed a public records lawsuit in the matter.   

Many military hospitals across the country have carried the abortion medication since the Food and Drug Administration approved it in 2006, but the new recommendations will require all Pentagon health facilities to stock it as a “core formulary” which means hospital commanders don’t have the discretion to exclude it. The Department of Defense already offers contraception options such as condoms and birth control pills for all soldiers.  

In accordance with federal law, military hospitals are forbidden from performing abortions. Since 1996 the U.S. government has banned (Hyde Amendment) the use of federal dollars to pay for abortions, though some states use local resources to fund the procedure. The federal ban applies to government health programs for the disabled and elderly (Medicare) and the poor (Medicaid). A separate provision, known as the Smith Amendment, prohibits federal funding of abortion under the federal employees’ health benefits plan.

The contentious abortion issue has already derailed controversial healthcare bills recently presented in Congress. The House legislation passed by a narrow margin only after an amendment was inserted banning federal funds for the procedure. The long-stalled Senate bill offers to levy a new “abortion premium” fee on Americans in the government-run plan.  

February 08, 2010 04:50 PM

Philadelphia - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will be arguing this Thursday before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia, urging the court to block a government attempt to seize telephone company records detailing a cell phone user's past locations without first getting a search warrant.

EFF is serving as a friend of the court or "amicus," joined by co-amici the ACLU, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, and the Center for Democracy & Technology. Professor Susan Freiwald of the University of San Francisco, who submitted a separate amicus brief to the panel, will be joining EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston in arguing on Thursday that federal privacy statutes in combination with the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protect the privacy of cell phone users and require the government to show probable cause before obtaining cell phone location information.

WHAT:
Oral argument In the Matter of the Application of the United States of America for an Order Directing a Provider of Electronic Communication Service to Disclose Records to the Government

WHEN:
Thursday, February 11th
9:30am

WHERE:
Albert Branson Maris Courtroom (19th floor)
U.S. Courthouse
601 Market St.
Philadelphia, PA 19106

For more information on attending Thursday's hearing, contact press@eff.org.

For the full EFF amicus brief to the Third Circuit:
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/celltracking/Filed%20Cell%20Tracking%2...

For more on the issue of cell phone tracking:
http://www.eff.org/issues/cell-tracking

Contacts:

Kevin Bankston
Senior Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
bankston@eff.org

Jennifer Stisa Granick
Civil Liberties Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
jennifer@eff.org

Rebecca Jeschke
Media Relations Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
press@eff.org

February 08, 2010 04:43 PM

“HIV” is spread primarily through sexual intercourse, according to official dogma. Particularly as a result of promiscuity, carelessness, irresponsibility in sexual behavior. Africans and African Americans test “HIV-positive” at rates far exceeding those of any other identifiable racial group, and they do so in every social and economic sector: among repeat blood donors, pregnant women, gay [...]

February 08, 2010 03:10 PM

A few news stories to cover in this post (cheers for the tip in comments). First off the tragic case of Gigi Jordan who killed her eight year old son (Jude Jordan Mirra) in New York's Peninsula Hotel in a botched murder-suicide attempt, before being discovered 'babbling incoherently' in a drugged, barely conscious state. Of course you have to expect many people to dismiss what she has said in her suicide note and in the past as the ravings of a delusional, suicidal woman who couldn't cope with her marriage breaking down and her son's autism. In the note she claims that her son was a rape victim who was in constant pain:

In a bizarre message intended as a suicide note, the wealthy one-time pharmaceutical company executive detailed a life of sadness interrupted by a single ray of hope: her only child, Jude.

"I hope Jude is in a better place," the 49-year-old Belgian wrote in the strange two-page note left in her 16th-floor suite at the posh Peninsula hotel.

At one point, Jordan suggested her son was a rape victim and "in constant pain." She mentioned speaking with a Wyoming child porn investigator about the sexual abuse of kids.

Ex-FBI agent Flint Waters "told me many rich people are involved," Jordan wrote. "Many wealthy guys trade child porn like a hobby."

For those interested in the symbolic architecture at the Peninsula Hotel (formerly called the 'Gotham Hotel') located on 5th avenue, 55th street; giving the the macabre Medea-like scenario a ritualistic air to it, the mother leading the child through the grandiose symbolic entrance (note the chandelier through the rising sun motif, confirming this symbolism; and the huge Solomon-like Twin Pillars) to his death, passing underneath the goddesses Pomona (fruit; forbidden fruit symbolism, in the 'Big Apple') and Diana who the elite are known to offer ritual sacrifices to (like Princess Diana), which I am not saying is the case in this scenario but should always be considered a possibility in these high profile cases. The very fact that she went there when she could have easily done the deed in the comfort of her luxury apartment in Trump Towers (she owned multimillion apartments there).
I suspect that she felt helpless in her situation, trapped in the predatory upper echelons of society, where (it might be hard for some to believe) there are a sociopathic manipulators more than willing to attend to the elite's pederastic tendencies (i.e. people who will befriend a mother then take their kid for 'day trips' [but really to the cult and/or rich pedophiles] or whatever, which may be the kind of thing that happened here and discovering this would inevitably traumatize and drive any caring mother near insane, leading them to believe their only escape is death).

Adding to this sense of helplessness leading up to this tragedy (assuming the media's narrative is truthful) is probably the fact that she was once arrested in Wyoming, "after claiming the boy was being molested by devil worshippers. Cheyenne Detective Tom Hood told the New York Post that Gigi Jordan wrote letters to a sex crimes investigator more than two years ago saying her autistic son was being abused by a cult. Hood says Wyoming officials briefly detained Jordan for a psychiatric evaluation. An examination of the boy showed no signs of abuse."

It seems likely that Gigi Jordan was on the Illuminist cult's watch-list of potential problems, I am skeptical that the boy was examined properly in Wyoming (often in situations like this the mother is written off as insane so they don't even bother to check, never mind the more likely scenario of the medical examiner being a paid-off pawn). Wyoming is the state in which Cathy O'Brien describes being subjected to Dick Cheney's perverse human hunting among other horrors, so seems heavily involved and corrupt (in terms of it's involvement with MKULTRA/Monarch, they no doubt have their own doctors positioned to take care of these kinds of accusations).

This is highly speculative (but logical) and I am merely stating it as a possibility bearing in mind her accusations, but the child's autism could be a symptom of his sexual abuse (a child shutting down, retreating from reality like that can be [of course in most cases it is not the cause, some have picked up on her pharmaceutical company/vaccine links] a result of failed programming and/or abuse) which I feel adds weight to Gigi's cult ritual abuse claims.
She amassed her fortune through the pharmaceutical industry and married wealthy entrepreneur Raymond Mirra. Her most recent husband Emil Tzekov (pictured above with Gigi and Jude in this deceptively happy photo; image source), Jude's real father (her ex-husband Raymond adopted him hence the surname Mirra [mirror?], but they both no longer have custody over the child and have been out of his life for years) is a New Age yoga guru, "who sells New Age DVDs ($14.95) and e-books ($5.95), offering "peace of mind ... maximum potential in both physical and mental activities."" Specializing in stretching, this is their site (Emil's myspace, specializing in splitting); his company's site also describes that he practices meditation which (obviously can be used for beneficial purposes) can be useful in training dissociation (people practicing meditation can sometimes suffer from involuntary dissociation to illustrate this) as part of cult programming.

Gigi's statement about 'God', spirituality and her child make her come across as somewhat MK'd, "In a Web posting on the site of a New Age fertility guru, Jordan had said having her child has "helped awaken a spiritual connection to God." "In learning how to release my fear of losing something I really wanted and to allow myself to believe I would have it," she wrote, "I gave birth to a beautiful boy, and experienced a greater depth of love and connectedness with my child." One must question how she goes from that extreme to ending this child's life (despite the difficulties of raising an autistic child). She originally hails from Belgium (where the Dutroux Affair/cover up occurred) and clearly loved her son, she may have spent that whole fateful night, and committed the act, in a dissociative state (potentially programmed to go to the Peninsula and end both their lives, we will never know).
Moving on to another article that caught my eye (thanks to a regular emailer for sending me this story) related to cult/"Satanic" Ritual Abuse and the establishment's continual need to keep the whole thing under wraps, I will just post the article as it needs little further explanation. Some will have heard of the case of Catholic Priest paedophile Father Gerald Robinson who had previously been convicted of murdering a nun (ritualistic murder, strangled then stabbed 31 times, including 9 times forming the shape of an inverted cross and other aspects pointing to an occult ritual slaying), the case against him and other priests' involvement was dropped by a judge because the victim did not file in time (the whole statute of limitations idea for such serious crimes as this seems ridiculous to me, the crime was still committed and should be punished however long after it takes for the victim to come forward, it seems like a pathetic excuse to stop the case from going ahead). Read on for details, article source link:

A lawsuit against Toledo priest Gerald Robinson, who was convicted in 2006 of murdering a nun, has been thrown out for being filed too late.

Judge Ruth Ann Franks of Lucas County Common Pleas Court said a Toledo woman's civil suit, alleging that she was abused by Robinson and others in satanic rituals when she was a child, was not filed within Ohio's statute of limitations, which in most cases is 12 years after the person turns 18.

The woman, now in her mid-40s, filed anonymously in 2005 as Survivor Doe along with her husband Spouse Doe, claiming that she could not have sued Robinson earlier because she did not know his identity until she saw him on television after his 2004 arrest for murder. Mark Davis, the woman's attorney, said he plans to appeal the ruling.

Judge Franks said in her 27-page decision, dated Tuesday, that while Survivor Doe did not know Robinson's identity, she knew at least four people involved in the abuse and therefore could have attempted to learn the other abusers' identities before the time limitations expired.

Judge Franks said child abuse may be the most "vile and vicious act that can be inflicted by a human" and that it stirs "very profound emotions," but "the law does not allow the court to operate on emotion."

She said Survivor Doe "could have sought assistance from law enforcement, and she could have attempted to act through other trusted individuals such as her husband" before the statute ex-pired.

Also named in the now-dismissed lawsuit were Gerald Mazuchowski, a Toledo lay Catholic; the Toledo Catholic Diocese, and St. Adalbert Parish and school, where some abuses allegedly occurred.

Survivor Doe claimed in the suit that she was sexually abused by the satanic cult between 1968 and 1975, and that her abusers included a hooded man "with evil eyes" and a hooded "fat" man who told other cult members what to do.

Judge Franks cited Survivor Doe as saying that she witnessed "her mother's participation in the ritual-type murder of a child during the satanic rituals and of her brother sexually assaulting her with a snake at someone's direction, also related to the satanic ritual abuse."

The judge said the Toledo woman began to remember the satanic rituals in 1994, kept detailed journals she calls her "life's work," and sought assistance from an attorney in 1994 about possibly suing her uncle for child abuse in a separate matter.

Mr. Davis, Survivor Doe's attorney, said he is convinced that "our case is even stronger this time … because the evidence is overwhelming that what she described is what actually happened."

He said he believes an appeals court will side with Survivor Doe's contention that the statute of limitations countdown should not have begun ticking until she recognized her alleged perpetrators.

Robinson's attorney, John Donahue, said yesterday that he was "very pleased" with Judge Franks' decision, calling it "sensitive to the concerns of child abuse victims" while also upholding the law - "that justice delayed is justice denied."

Robinson, 71, is serving a 15-years-to-life sentence at Hocking Correctional Facility in southern Ohio for the 1980 murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl. He was barred from ministry and has retired from the diocese but remains a priest because he has not been laicized by the Vatican.

Sister Margaret Ann's body was found, choked and stabbed 32 times, on the morning of April 5, 1980 - Holy Saturday - in the sacristy of the former Mercy Hospital.

Robinson was arrested by cold-case detectives in April, 2004, and found guilty of murder in Lucas County Common Pleas Court in May, 2006.

His legal appeals have been rejected by the Ohio 6th District Court of Appeals, the Ohio Supreme Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court. A petition for postconviction relief is pending before Judge Gene Zmuda in Lucas County Common Pleas Court, with a hearing scheduled for Jan. 22.

I'll finish with another facet of mind control, illustrating some of the (here very crude) manipulation/programming techniques used by traffickers; but remember that "human trafficking busts" that feature in the media like the arrested couple here, are invariably just tiny drops in the ocean and never get near the more sophisticated (in terms of techniques/programming/etc) "elite" networks (as I've gone into many times before they are have historically always been the driving force behind the slave trade, I will continue to drive home this point). Daily Mail article source.

Young women and girls were subjected to bizarre rituals to scare them into a life of prostitution, a court heard today.

Some were shoved into coffins and witnessed chicken slaughter before they were trafficked from Nigeria and coerced into a large and lucrative prostitution ring run by a married couple.

Irishman Thomas Carroll, 48, and his South African wife Shamiela Clark, 32, ran a complex and organised prostitution business in Ireland, which earned more than one million euros in one year, Cardiff Crown Court was told.

Heartless: Thomas Carroll, left and Shamiela Clark ran a prostitution business in Ireland, trafficking women from Africa and Latin America

Clark, who went by the name of Carmen, ran a 'call centre' where she co-ordinated the brothels and took calls from clients, organised accommodation and placed adverts in newspapers, the court heard.

Robert Davies, prosecuting, said the business used foreign sex workers 'so they would not have homes to go to at night'.

Most of the young women and girls, one aged just 15, came from South America and Nigeria, with many not knowing they would have to work as prostitutes to pay off the huge debts they were told they owed their traffickers.

Women from Nigeria underwent 'terrifying and humiliating' rituals involving menstrual blood, killing chickens and being pushed into a coffin 'to put the fear of death in them', Judge Neil Bidder was told.

When many women, who were not trafficked by the defendants, arrived at different locations around Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, they believed they would find work as hairdressers or seamstresses.

Instead they were sent to a rented apartment and put to work as prostitutes, Mr Davies said.

The 15-year-old girl was handed condoms, lingerie and a tube of cream and left to await instructions.

The women were telephoned by Clark who would tell them when to expect their first client. She also told them the rates and the rules of the brothel.

'They were cynically catapulted into a miserable existence and exploited,' Mr Davies said.

'They must have felt highly disorientated and frightened by their new life working as a working girl, particularly given the regime that was operating.'

Other prostitutes were recruited through advertisements on the internet and in newspapers, the court was told.

Mr Davies said: 'Women were forced to move between apartments, being run as brothels, on either side of the Irish border.

'Accounts are disturbing and force the conclusion that most of the women were driven to it by desperate personal circumstances or coerced by threats from others into selling themselves."

Carroll, of Castlemartin Barracks, Pembroke, South Wales, and Clark, of Gateway Lodge, Pembroke, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to control prostitution for gain and conspiracy to money launder.

They were joined in the dock for sentencing by Carroll's daughter, Toma Carroll, 26, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to money launder.

The court heard the prostitutes, who charged 260 euros for an hour and 160 euros for half an hour, were told to pay their earnings into her bank account so that she could then move the money into an account that could be accessed by Carroll.

The court heard that from 2002 increasing amounts of money were deposited into Miss Carroll's bank account. In 2006 111,000 euros were deposited, in 2007 1.13 million euros and in 2008 500,000 euros had been deposited by September.

February 08, 2010 01:19 PM

Over the weekend I received an email from Irishscot2, a poster on MarketWatch, regarding seasonal adjustments to the unemployment rate.

Hi Mish

I believe the seasonal adjustment is no longer valid given that anticipated job creation down the road has not and will not be happening. I expect late spring to reverse the January effect heading into the elections. If so, a perfect political storm brewing because of their models!

Irishscot2

Irishscot2 compared the unadjusted numbers to the seasonally adjusted numbers on a percentage basis. I could not tell much from the raw data he sent, so I asked for his spreadsheet and he graciously obliged.

It is difficult to visualize raw numbers, especially trends in percentage differences, so I added a column and a couple of graphs to the spreadsheet. Here are the results.

Seasonally Unadjusted Unemployment vs. Unadjusted Unemployment



click on chart for sharper image

The above chart shows how the BLS smoothes the unemployment rate to account for seasonal trends. It also give as hint as to an increasing magnitude of that smoothing.

To highlight the month to month variances, I added a column to show the amplitude of the seasonal adjustments. The result is this chart.

Unadjusted Unemployment Minus Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment



click on chart for sharper image

Seasonal Adjustment Highlights

• There is always a big BLS adjustment in January
• There is always a reversion to the mean that overshoots to the downside between March and April
• There is always a secondary rebound back above the 0.0% line in July, followed by a smaller overshoot to the downside in October.

The problem is in the increasing amplitude of these swings, in both directions. It really makes you wonder just what the hell the BLS is doing and why.

I have data charted all the way back to 1999. Prior to January 2009, the biggest January swing was .6 percent, in both 2004 and 2003. In 2008 the January swing was only .5 percent.

The amplitude of January swings in both 2009 and 2010 was .9 percent, way outside the data range for the last 10 years, by a factor of 50 percent (.3/.6).

Likewise, the prior swings in October peaked at -.4 percent on a couple of occasions but hit -.7% in October 2009.

Unless it's different this time (I figure it is not) a reversion to the mean that slightly overshoots in a May-June timeframe will lop off a whopping 1.3 percent off the posted seasonally adjusted rate of 9.7 percent just announced.

In other words, all things being equal (no job gains or losses), we could expect to see the unemployment rate approach 11% by May! Of course we have to factor in actual job growth (or lack thereof). We also have to factor in census bureau hiring.

Heaven knows what census hiring will do to the BLS algorithms. Your guess is as good as mine. However, whatever it does, census hiring will also revert to the mean.

Also remember that it takes 100,000 to 120,000 jobs per month just to hold unemployment rate steady. Think that's going to happen? If so (and again discounting census hiring), then you are living in Bizarro world along with everyone else who thinks the unemployment rate is going to come crashing down.

Real World Analysis

As unbelievable as this may sound, some people do live in the real world, reporting on real data, about real jobs.

Please consider TrimTabs: Here's Why The Real Jobs Loss Number Was 5x Worse Than What The BLS Reported

TrimTabs employment analysis, which uses real-time daily income tax deposits from all U.S. taxpayers to compute employment growth, estimated that the U.S. economy shed 104,000 jobs in January. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported the U.S. economy lost 20,000 jobs. We believe the BLS has underestimated January’s results due to problems inherent in their survey techniques.

While the BLS originally reported job losses of 4.2 million in 2009, TrimTabs reported 5.3 million, a difference of more than a million lost jobs.

Since July 2009, TrimTabs estimates and the BLS estimates have diverged again. While the tax data points to a weak job market, the BLS estimates point to a steadily improving job market. We believe the job market is much worse than the BLS is reporting and that in January 2011, when the BLS revises their estimates for 2010, their April 2009 through December 2009 results will move much closer to TrimTabs’ results.

The BLS has seriously underreported job losses for the past two years due to their flawed methodology. TrimTabs has identified the following four problems:

1.The BLS employment estimate is based on a survey, and not on an actual count of employees. While the BLS survey is large and supposedly designed to capture the complex nature of the employment market, it is still a survey and therefore subject to error. TrimTabs believes that rapid changes in an employment cycle cannot be captured by surveys.

....

Real-Time tax withholding data shows that wages and salaries declined an adjusted 1.0% y-o-y. In January 2009, wages and salaries declined 5.0%. If the labor market were improving, we would expect a positive year-over-year growth rate. The fact that tax withholding data is still declining year-over-year suggests that the labor market is still contracting.

The BLS added a whopping 1.92 million jobs to their survey results in January. That is the spike shown in the second chart above. The number is so preposterous one might wonder if it was purposely preposterous. Census hiring may add to the preposterousness of it all, depending on what the BLS does with its models.

However, unless the administration can pull a kangaroo out of a hat, those BLS seasonal distortions will fall on the hard rocks of reality, real jobs, by real people, as opposed to figments of imagination from some very imaginative people at the BLS.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post ListMike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 08, 2010 09:15 AM

Hot news from the BBC today: "Dinner lady" Queen serves up sausages to children, links well with my post of yesterday regarding infidelity and Glaswegian gangsters, as we read of how the Queen visited St. Peter and St. Paul church near her Norfolk estate; handing out good attendance certificates together with a hot meal of sausage and mash to children.

What jumps out, considering yesterday's reference to crime families the Daniels and the Lyons, is that :

Charlie Adams, a helper at the Sunday school for the parish of Sandringham and West Newton, said: "The Queen and the Duke spent a lot of time talking to the children and their parents.
"About 20 of them performed a version of Daniel and the Lion's Den for her. They practised so hard."

Sausage speaks for itself in the context of previous posts, whilst in slang a sausage is a banger and in cockney rhyme, bangers and mash = cash; collecting the latter a favourite hobby of gangsters, including the monarchy.

Moving back up home, both the main Scottish tabloids today ran a gangster story regarding a threat made to Celtic footballer Darren O'Dea, who seemingly was threatened with having his kneecaps shot off by a "feared drug baron", David Hough, the incident taking place at Karbon nightclub. It appears from the report that Mr. Hough used to be pals with the Lyons before taking up with the Daniels; his main gangland friend now being Robert "Birdman" O'Hara. The cause of the trouble is said to be related to a dispute over a young lady.

This incident is again well starred, Karbon with a C being the future unit of "cash" in these "climate changing" times, yet again Celtic - tying in with the green, and finally the birdman, surely resonating Baphomet and thus Prince William, the Templar's Rex Mundi.


cheers

February 08, 2010 08:02 AM

In a move I wholeheartedly endorse, Colton considering cost of disbanding fire department, contracting out.

In the latest effort to find better - and cheaper - ways of operating, Colton officials are exploring the possibility of disbanding the city fire department and contracting with an outside agency.

The City Council unanimously approved contracts totaling $187,570 with San Francisco-based consulting firm Harvey M. Rose Associates, LLC to perform "operational performance audits" of the Fire Department and Colton Electric Utility.

The city's fiscal woes are well known. The recession has forced the closure of many businesses, resulting in huge drops in sales tax, the city's top income source.

New City Manager Rod Foster, who began his tenure in December, proposed the audits so an unbiased outside source could evaluate the fire and electric departments for efficiency and provide recommendations for increasing revenue to help fund city services. Both audits will begin this week and should be completed within three months, Foster said.

The hope is that the audits will provide several recommendations that will save money to help close a $950,000 deficit city officials have projected at the onset of the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Business owner Gary Grossich says Colton pays too much for its fire services. If faced with companies that provide the same product, it's common business sense to go with the one that charges the least, he said.

"It only makes sense to get the same service for less money," Grossich said. "I think that's what (the audit is) going to show. They're going to find out that we're paying substantially more than other cities our size in our area that have contracted out (fire services.)"

Highland, which has a population of about 52,000, roughly the same as Colton, budgeted about $4.2 million for its fire and paramedic contract with CalFire in this fiscal year.

One by one, cities ought to contract out fire department services. If unions want the job, they can lower their cost. It is that simple, at least it should be.

All it takes is one major city to do the right thing to cause a nice cascade. Colton isn't huge, but at 48,000 population or so, it is not "tinytown, population 1,800" either. Trends have to start somewhere. Let's hope Colton follows through given that it did waste $187,570 of taxpayer money when the solution should have been obvious.

By the way, the best solution is to have volunteer fire departments, but any step towards that end is a step in the right direction.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post ListMike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 08, 2010 05:18 AM

The San Francisco Chronicle has an interest story about Automatic Raises For Muni Drivers.

So much for the idea of saving $8 million by having Muni drivers give up their raises next year. Even if Muni drivers were game, they can't forgo their raise because they are required in the city charter, which guarantees that they are the second-highest paid transit operators in the nation.

With the raise issue off the table, the union is being pushed to consider other concessions, such as allowing Muni to use part-time drivers and ending or reducing premium pay benefits for such things as working at night or training other drivers. Or, Muni operators could start contributing to their retirement account.

Supervisor Sean Elsbernd has another option: pass a proposed ballot measure he's pursuing for the June ballot that would remove the formula-based pay provision and make the pay scale for Muni operators subject to collective bargaining. Elsbernd's proposal, vehemently opposed by the transit union and generally given a cool reception from several of his colleagues and the mayor, will be considered by the Rules Committee on Thursday for placement on the ballot.

No matter how poorly they perform, or how broke the city is, San Francisco muni workers have a guaranteed second highest pay schedule in the nation. One would have to be absolutely out of his mind to go along with such nonsense. Yet, the mayor does not want to do a damn thing about it.

Oregon Pension Board Ponders Rate Increases

Oregon's pension plan (like that of nearly every other state) is massively underfunded. But no one wants to increase employer rates to properly fund it.

Inquiring minds are reading Public pension board to vote on employer rate increases.

Under current rate-setting rules, public agencies and the taxpayers that support them face a 170 percent spike in biennial pension contributions starting in 2011 -- a collective $1.5 billion budget hit -- to start digging out of the pension fund's actuarial hole.

The market plunge lopped $17 billion off the value of the Oregon Public Employee Retirement Fund. Despite a strong recovery last year, the $51 billion fund still has a shortfall of approximately $14 billion, with 75 cents in assets for every $1 in liabilities.

The board has been lobbied by public employers and unions to temper any rate increases because of the impact on the already strained budgets of municipalities, school districts and public agencies across the state. The dilemma is whether it can do so without further compromising the funded status of the system or pushing the obligation off on future generations.

PERS-covered employers currently pay an average rate of 12.4 percent of payroll to cover retirement benefits. The system has a contribution rate collar that normally limits rate changes to 3 percent of payroll per biennium. But when individual employer's funded status is less than 80 percent the collar doubles, and their rates jump by 6 percent of payroll costs.

A 6 percentage point increase would leave average employer rates above 18 percent in 2011.

The depressing reality in Mercer's models is how little the increased contributions under either the current or revised policy actually budge the system's funded status. Even if the pension fund's investments earn 8 percent annually for the next decade, the system's funded status only reaches the 80 percent level in 2019. If that's the case, employers will face further rate increases in 2013 and 2015.

"Even if market consistently deliver strong returns, we're moving to a higher level of contributions for the next decade," said PERS board chairman James Dalton, a former Tektronix executive. "It's going to take a long time to recover. It's a different environment."

If, on the other hand, returns are closer to the system's average over the last 10 years -- 4.5 percent -- the actuarial deficit will grow precipitously.

Employers need to pay 18% of salaries to fund pensions

If returns are poor it will quickly be 20%, then 24%. When does someone finally have the guts to tell the union freeloaders to go to hell or to raise rates to what is needed so there is a public outcry. Instead ...

The Oregon Pension Board Eases Rate Hikes.

The board of the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System has voted to take some of the edge off a coming increase in employer pension rates.

Rates are rising because of the 2008 stock market downturn. The new policy bases them on a sliding scale tied to how well-funded each employer’s pension fund is.

PERS Executive Director Paul Cleary characterized the move as based more on fairness than to provide rate relief.

Under the old policy, the investment declines most participating pension plans have suffered would have triggered an automatic 6 percent rate increase for employers.

The new policy means that better-funded pension plans within PERS will have smaller rate increases than public employers with plans hit harder by the economic downturn.

Oregon Buries Head In Sand

As expected, the pension board, stuck its collective head in the sand, pretending the problem will go away. It won't.

Double Dipping Sheriffs

Thoroughly disgusted minds are reading about sheriff officials double and triple dipping.

Though highly unusual, the methods San Luis Obispo County’s two top sheriff officials have adopted to double and even triple their incomes are entirely legal.

In an interesting twist, San Luis Obispo County Under Sheriff Steve Bolts is taking home between $640,000 and $772,000 this year in retirement benefits and an hourly salary, while his boss, Sheriff Pat Hedges, takes home $340,000, according to calculations based on dates provided by Bolts.

“I can see people saying this is double or triple dipping,” Bolts said. “But this is the pension plan and I am not hiding anything. All of that money is mine anyhow.”

The principal reason for Bolts’ hefty income is the Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP). Adopted by the board of supervisors in October 2006, DROP allows county employees to simultaneously collect both their full wages and benefits along with their full retirement for a period of no more than five years.

Currently, sheriff’s department personnel retire under a pension formula that allows members to retire at age 50 with 90 percent of their salaries.

Question of Relativity

This kind of behavior will not change until public outcry forces it. Pray tell, exactly what does it take for the taxpaying public to revolt against this kind of union greed and arrogance?

I have had several email exchanges with teachers who just do not get it, and thankfully many more who are interested in an actual discussion of the issues.

The issue at hand is the defined benefit pension system is flat broke. The issue is NOT that police unions are worse (they are), firefighter unions are worse (they are), transportation unions are worse (they are), but rather what is actually mathematically supportable.

All public unions are a problem.

Inevitably I hear about "living wages". Well one of the reasons living wages are so high in the first place is unions (all of them) demand a free lunch (to varying degrees) that the private sector does not get.

I discussed the issue at length in Are Teachers To Blame For Economic Illiteracy?

Everything Is Relative (But It All Matters)

Dear "California Teacher"

The whole defined benefit scheme in general is broke. Cities will go bankrupt unless something is done. That is a simple mathematical statement of fact.

Yes, relatively speaking, teacher salaries are not as problematic as police or firefighter salaries, but is that a sound reason to avoid fixing a fundamental problem with teacher pensions and union rules that protect the worst employees?

I am infuriated with police and firefighters retiring at age 50 with 90% of top salary. However, just because something is less of a problem does not mean it is not a problem.

Teachers email me saying they are underpaid, police and firefighters email me telling me that their life is on the line, bureaucrats of all sorts email me saying what they do is important. To top it off, warmongers email me in support of defense spending because they have a job at a defense contractor.

In short, everyone wants an exception for their group and everyone thinks what they do is necessary. Unions spread fear if they do not get what they want. The teachers' unions, along with police and firefighters, are the most adept at spreading fear. Politicians are afraid to take on unions, and exempt themselves from the mess by increasing their own pay and benefits as well.

The only sensible thing to do is reduce benefits. Taxing the already overburdened private sector, which does not get such benefits, cannot and will not work.

There is absolutely no basis, none, nadda, zippo, zero, etc., for teachers to assume they deserve a pension plan paid at taxpayer expense, that the private sector does not get.

One teacher "ADL", went so far as to write:

You conveniently don’t bother ever mentioning is that when you become enrolled in either CalPERS or CalSTRS (most teachers are STRS) you no longer pay into social security so that does not accrue for you any longer. So, it is good that teachers have some kind of retirement to look forward to.

My reply:

I conveniently overlook that?

I will gladly take away your union pension and propose you pay into SS instead. Indeed, I think that is a great idea. I suggest you promote it!

Indeed, public employees should have to do what the rest of the country does. Politicians should not be an exception either.

Thus, I highly recommend ending the unjust disparity to which "ADL" refers. The solution is very easy. Teachers should give up their pension plans and pay into social security.

I commend "ADL" for his fine suggestion.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post ListMike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 07, 2010 10:45 PM

February 07, 2010 09:29 PM

In Steel Tariffs Show Protectionism On The Rise, I noted that 145% steel pipe and steel grating tariffs would bring a reaction from China.

Who Benefits From This?

Essentially no one. Potentially a few hundred steel workers get jobs back, but everyone using those products has to pay more. Demand will slow and price pressures will increase on everyone using those products. In aggregate, more jobs will be lost as a result of these tariffs than gained.

And that is just on the surface. Think China will not react? A nice clear message would be for China to cancel plane orders from Boeing or industrial goods from GE. Even if China is not so overt in its message, it is foolish to think there will be no repercussions over this.

The rising tide of protectionism is not a good thing. It never is.

105% Tariffs On US Chickens

Retaliation for 145% steel tariffs (on top of huge tire tariffs) has arrived: China announces anti-dumping steps on US chicken.

China announced anti-dumping duties of up to 105.4 percent Friday on imports of U.S. chicken products, adding to trade strains with Washington.

The case comes amid mutual accusations of protectionism by Beijing and Washington which both say will hurt efforts to end the global economic downturn.

A preliminary investigation concluded U.S. exports were being sold at improperly low prices that harmed Chinese competitors, the Commerce Ministry said. It said importers must post a bond until a final decision is reached.

Beijing launched the investigation in September after Washington raised duties on imports of Chinese-made tires despite vigorous opposition from China.

The two governments also are embroiled in disputes over access to each other's markets for steel pipes, movies and books and other goods.

The chicken duties take effect Feb. 13 and apply to whole birds, chicken sausage and other products, the Commerce Ministry said. Included are chicken feet, which most Americans throw away but which are a delicacy in southern China.

Companies that appealed the ruling will pay lower duties of 43.1 percent to 80.5 percent, the ministry said. Tyson Foods Inc. will be charged the lowest rate, while Pilgrim's Pride Corp. is at the top end of that range.

Importers that did not appeal will be charged 105.4 percent, the ministry said.

Tire Tariff Recap

This all started with tires, and the irony of tires is US manufacturers did not even want protection.

In what is widely considered a test case of the president's union support, Obama slaps duties on tire imports from China.

U.S. President Barack Obama slapped steep additional duties on tire imports from China on Friday in a move that pleased domestic labor groups but drew a strong rebuke from Beijing.

The United Steelworkers union, which represents workers at many U.S. tire production plants, filed a petition earlier this year asking for the protection. It said a tripling of tire imports from China to about 46 million in 2008 from about 15 million in 2004 had cost more than 5,000 U.S. tire worker jobs.

The ITC had recommended starting with a 55 percent tariff that would fall to 45 percent in year two and 35 percent in year three. The steelworkers asked initially for a quota of 21 million that would grow by 5 percent each year.

Analysts expect Friday's action to encourage other labor groups or domestic manufacturers to seek relief under Section 421, which does not require petitioners to prove unfair trade practices are responsible for a surge in imports.

No American tire manufacturer supported the case and one, Cooper Tire, publicly opposed it.

Tire Tariffs Seen And Unseen

Flashback September 14, 2009: Obama Risks Global Trade War With Misguided Tariffs

First steel, now tires. Let's see how China responds. China might put import duties on meat hurting US farmers, or perhaps they decide to buy planes from Airbus instead of Boeing. Perhaps they simply buy fewer planes from Boeing.

For now let's assume 5000 jobs would be "saved" by this measure. Let's total up the gains and losses from the Tariffs.

Gains From Tire Tariffs

• 5,000 Jobs

Losses From Tire Tariffs

• China reduces orders for planes and/or imposes agricultural tariffs in response. China will retaliate somehow those are possible examples how.
• Costs go up as production shifts from China to US or elsewhere.
• Millions of US consumers temporarily have to pay unnecessarily high prices for tires as long as normal supply chains disrupted.
• Fewer dock workers are needed as both imports from China and exports to China drop

Let's revisit those gains. Does anyone really think 5,000 jobs are coming back to the US as a result of this action? Better yet, did we really lose 5,000 jobs in the first place as a result of tire imports from China?

Let's explore those questions with a look at tire production.

Tire Production Before And After Tariffs

The Washington Post article As Cheaper Chinese Tires Roll In, Obama Faces an Early Trade Test has a graph of tire production. I duplicated the chart and doubled it up showing what I believe to be the before and after effects of the tariff. Annotations in blue are mine.



click on chart for sharper image

Tire workers gained nothing as manufacturing will shift somewhere else. However the price of tires is likely to rise up on account of production disruptions.

Arguably 5,000 steel workers saved jobs. However, those jobs come at the expense of higher prices on buyers and also at the expense of chicken farmers forced to bear the brunt of retaliation.

Think anything is gained by Tariffs?
Think again.

This has a chance of escalating way out of control if Obama decides to label China a currency manipulator.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List
Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 07, 2010 08:46 PM

Washington Post:

Mortgage bankers group sells D.C. offices to Bethesda company

The Mortgage Bankers Association, its membership expert in real estate, sold its $90 million headquarters in downtown Washington on Friday for $41 million.

The industry lobbying group has struggled financially in recent years, as the market collapsed and lending dried up, with members dropping out as they lost their jobs. Its membership fell to 2,500 from 3,000, officials said in 2008

"It's a little bit of irony that in the middle of the mortgage crisis brought on by the bad lending practices of many members of the Mortgage Bankers Association that they got caught up in the same problem," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal research group.

Grand Rapids News:

Saugatuck Township asks voters to approve new tax to fight lawsuits seeking lower property taxes.

Township Board Trustee Jim Hanson said lawsuits by developers and people who try to get property taxes reduced are draining the township's budget.

Amazingly the city of Saugatuck, Michigan is asking voters to approve a tax hike to fight those seeking tax reductions.

Telegraph:

Labour invents 33 new crimes every month

Thanks to Labour, it is now illegal to swim in the wreck of the Titanic or to sell game birds killed on a Sunday or Christmas Day – eventualities overlooked by previous governments.

Labour has made 4,289 activities illegal since the 1997 election, at a rate of about one a day – twice the speed with which the previous Conservative government created crimes.

Gordon Brown was the worst offender, with his government inventing 33 new crimes a month. Tony Blair's administration made 27 new offences each month.

Some of the more inventive crimes dreamt up by Labour include "disturbing a pack of eggs when directed not to by an authorised officer" and reporting the door of a merchant ship to be closed and locked when it isn't.

Liberal Democrat home office spokesman Chris Huhne, who brought the figures to light, will criticise the government's administrative binge in a speech tonight.He will say Labour has spent 12 years "suffering from the most acute and prolonged bout of legislative diarrhoea".

A Look At Prius



The above by explicit permission.
I will try and have a new one every Sunday.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post ListMike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 07, 2010 06:02 PM

The House voted to increase the US debt limit to $14.3 trillion.



My thoughts to ponder:

This massive US debt load (discussed above), the incessant global papering over of toxic assets, the multitude of looming sovereign nation defaults and flashing CODE RED SIGNALS on a variety of markets worldwide suggests that nothing has been fixed and the wheels are ready to drop off this out of control global economy ... It's quite possible the "mega crash" may now be imminent - and the fact global economic leaders shrouded themselves in a secret Australian meeting this weekend (below) may indicate that they are now preparing to execute plan "b" - the central bank of the new world order... may want to strap on your seatbelts folks!!


Secret summit of top bankers

THE world's top central bankers began arriving in Australia yesterday as renewed fears about the strength of the global economic recovery gripped world share markets.

Representatives from 24 central banks and monetary authorities including the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank landed in Sydney to meet tomorrow at a secret location, the Herald Sun reports.

Organised by the Bank for International Settlements last year, the two-day talks are shrouded in secrecy with high-level security believed to have been invoked by law enforcement agencies.

Speculation that the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Dr Ben Bernanke, would make an appearance could not be confirmed last night.

The event will be dominated by Asian delegations and is expected to include governors of the Peoples Bank of China, the Bank of Japan and the Reserve Bank of India.

The arrival of the high-powered gathering coincided with a fresh meltdown on world sharemarkets, sparked by renewed concerns about global growth and sovereign debt.

Fears countries including Greece, Portugal, Spain and Dubai could default on debt repayments combined with disappointing US jobs data to spook investors.

Australia's ASX 200 slumped 2.4 per cent, to a its lowest close since November 5, echoing a sharp fall on Wall Street.

Asian share markets were also pummelled, with Japan's Nikkei 225 down almost 3 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng slumping 3.3 per cent.

The damage was also being felt by European markets last night with London's FTSE 100 down sagging 1 per cent in early trade.

Sovereign debt fears rippled through to the Australian dollar which was hammered to a four-month low of US86.43 and was trading at US86.77 cents last night.

"This does feel like '08 and '07 all over again whereby we had these sort of little fires pop up and they are supposedly contained but in reality they are not quite contained,'' said H3 Global Advisors chief executive Andrew Kaleel.

"Dubai should have been an isolated incident and now we are seeing issues with Greece, Portugal and Spain.''

It wasn't all bad news with the RBA yesterday upping its Australian growth forecasts and flagging more interest rate rises this year.

The central bank estimates the economy grew 2 per cent in 2009, and will expand by 3.25 per cent in 2010, and by 3.5 per cent in 2011.

The outlook for global growth is likely to be a key theme of the high level central bank talks.

The gathering also comes at an important time for the BIS as it initiates an overhaul of the global banking system which will include new capital rules applying to banks and more stringent standards regulating executive pay.

A key part of the two-day talkfest will be a special meeting of Asian central bankers chaired by the governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia, Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz.

Influential BIS general manager Jaime Caruana is also expected to take a prominent role in the talks.

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan will address the central bank officials at a dinner on Monday night.

February 07, 2010 01:19 PM

Hat tip Barry!

"Frankly, I don't know what it is about California, but we seem to have a strange urge to elect really obnoxious women to high office. I'm not bragging, you understand, but no other state, including Maine, even comes close. When it comes to sending left-wing dingbats to Washington, we're number one. There's no getting around the fact that the last time anyone saw the likes of Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, and Nancy Pelosi, they were stirring a cauldron when the curtain went up on 'Macbeth'. The three of them are like jackasses who happen to possess the gift of blab. You don't know if you should condemn them for their stupidity or simply marvel at their ability to form words."

Columnist Burt Prelutsky, LA Times

February 07, 2010 11:11 AM

The New York Times has an interesting article Is Debt Trashing the Euro? It could easily be subtitled How Unions Destroyed Greece. The same thing is happening here. Let's take a look.

DIMITRIS DAMIANIDIS is a high school teacher and a strong supporter of Greece’s socialist government. But that won’t deter him from going on strike with hundreds of thousands of other public sector workers next week to fight for the 28,000-euro pension that he expects to receive annually after he turns 60 next year.

“Why should I as a worker pay for the errors in policies?” he asked, in response to reports that the embattled Greek state will cut his pay and, by extension, retirement benefits. “The worker can’t be the scapegoat. So we have to defend ourselves.”

As Mr. Damianidis and others on the state payroll prepare to stop work on Wednesday, fear is building that the country’s new government may lack the nerve to cut public wages and pension payments, which make up 51 percent of its budget.

“The risk of contagion is a real one,” said Scott Thiel, the head of European fixed income at the asset management firm BlackRock in London. “Investor sentiment is now focused on countries like Spain and Portugal, where fundamentals are weakest.” He said that for now, he saw little risk for Italy, given the relative stability of its economy.

“We have a centralized monetary policy, but we allow budgets and wages to move in different directions,” said Paul De Grauwe, an economist in Brussels who advises the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso. “Without a political union, in the long run the euro zone cannot last.”

Indeed, as core economies like those of France and Germany show signs of economic recovery, Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain are just entering savage recessions. Spain, the largest of the peripheral economies, announced last week that the number of its unemployed had reached four million — the highest in its history — and warned that the country’s deficit might be worse than previously thought.

TO be sure, Mr. Damianidis is among the smallest of actors in this saga.

Yet his sense of entitlement shows how hard it will be for governments in Portugal, Spain and Italy to persuade their citizens to accept cuts demanded by Brussels as well as bond investors.

The bonuses, he concedes with a smile, have nothing to do with his skill as a high school teacher. “Over the years, whenever workers would strike, they would in some cases get a bonus,” he said, as he sat in a local union office here.

For decades, both conservative and socialist governments in Greece have rewarded the demands of public sector unions with higher pay and more jobs.

In 2009, striking farmers were paid 400 million euros by the government — and this year they are back again, having briefly closed Greece’s border with Bulgaria. Protesting dockworkers extracted big payouts from the government in November. And the country’s tax collectors went on strike on Thursday even though their services are needed more than ever.

Striking is a bit of a national sport in Greece. Last month, the country’s unionized prostitutes took to the streets, protesting unlicensed competition from Russian and Eastern European immigrants.

With concessions and accessions, the country’s budget has become bloated. In Parliament, for example, the administrative staff has increased to 1,500 from 700 in the last few years, even though the number of members of Parliament has remained the same. Last year alone, 29,000 public-sector workers were hired to replace 14,000 who retired, according to the finance ministry.

“There is no end,” said Stefanos Manos, a former minister for the economy in the 1990s and a persistent critic of what he considers spending abuses in Greece. “The hiring and the spending is uncontrollable.”

Errors In Policy Errors In Logic

Mr. Damianidis asks “Why should I as a worker pay for the errors in policies?”

The answer should not be too hard to find: It was those errors in policy that gave unions clowns what they wanted, bankrupting the country. The unions unjustly benefited from their strikes, so it is the unions who should pay the price now.

Greek Farmers Block Highway



Aris Messinis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

"Calling for higher prices, Greek farmers blocked a highway last month. The government, running in the red, has long used cash to appease such constituencies. "

Union Greed and Gall in Nevada

Please consider UNION PROTEST: Education supporters rail at rally

A raucous crowd of more than 600 teachers and parents blasted potential state budget cuts for K-12 education during a rally Saturday at Chaparral High School organized by the Clark County Education Association, the teachers' union. While state Democratic leaders and school and union officials all spoke, some of the biggest applause lines were shouted from the gymnasium bleachers.

Signs like "Will teach for food" and "A pay cut is a tax increase" expressed anger at the governor's recommendation to cut teachers' salaries by 6 percent to help close a budget gap brought on by the economic crisis.

Another sign, "Taxes not axes," uttered what was missing from politicians' speeches: the mention of any new taxes. The sign holder was Joan Kissling, a science teacher at Brinley Middle School.

Instead of cutting the budget, Kissling said the state needed to raise taxes "on food, whatever it takes."

Brainwashing Kids

Notice the greed and gall of teachers demanding taxes on food that will fall disproportionally on those who can least afford it, just so they can keep their bloated pensions and undeserved salaries.

Those who wish to see how unions brainwash kids for their benefit, can watch the "Not on my Back" Teacher Rally slideshow.

Union Protest In Utah

Please consider Thousands rally at Capitol to protest retirement bills.

Thousands of public employees including teachers, police officers, firefighters and retirees rallied at the Utah State Capitol Saturday, urging lawmakers against a massive restructuring of retirement benefits.



[See article to play video - Blogger cannot handle this type -Mish]

Several bills will go before the Legislature this session with proposed cuts to the current pension system, 401(k) matching and changes to the practice known as "double dipping."

A lawmaker sponsoring two of those bills says changes are needed to prevent a catastrophe, but those at the rally have huge concerns.

Public employees who gathered at the Capitol Saturday are worried lawmakers are proceeding too quickly with those changes without really studying the issues. They feel the changes could hurt the recruitment of quality employees in the future.

Sen. Dan Liljenquist, R-Bountiful, has proposed a set of bills that would cut pension system benefits for new employees and do away with the existing 1.5 percent 401(k) match.

If these bills pass, public employees hired after July 1, 2011 would not be eligible for the current pension system plan. Instead, they could either put 8 percent of their salary into a 401(k) type of program or put part of it into a defined benefit pension plan with greatly reduced benefits.

Utah Unions March In Favor Of Their Own Demise

For more on the Utah proposal, please see Bill to End Defined Benefit Plans Under Consideration in Utah.

The amazing thing about the Utah protest is that existing union members would not have to give up anything in Liljenquist's proposal. His plan only affects new hires after July 1, 2011.

Essentially the Utah union clowns are marching in favor of their own demise given that something has to give, either current salaries and benefits, or future salaries and benefits.

It is amazing how stupid unions can be.

Insanity In Phoenix

Disgusted minds are reading Phoenix gives OK to 2% tax on food.

Desperate to save police, fire and other city jobs, a divided Phoenix City Council on Tuesday approved a sales tax on grocery items that will generate tens of millions of dollars a year.

The 2 percent food tax will take effect April 1 and expire after five years, though Mayor Phil Gordon said the council has the option of reversing its decision after it hears from the public during 15 budget hearings planned for this month.

Phoenix shoppers who buy paper towels, toothpaste and other non-food items at a grocery store already pay an 8.3 percent sales tax, 2 percent of which goes to the city. But Phoenix has not taxed food items since the early 1980s.

Sign Of Failure

Inquiring minds are reading Phoenix food tax increase a sign of failure.

On Sept. 11, 2007, Phoenix voters were asked to approve an 11 percent increase on the general sales tax that, it was promised, would result in 500 more police and firefighters. On Tuesday, the Phoenix City Council voted to impose a five-year, 2-cent sales tax on food purchased from grocery stores – to save the jobs of 500 police and firefighters. Media reports say Phoenix officials intend to use the food tax revenues to stop staffing cuts announced in January for the police and fire departments.

Taxes are a poor substitute for doing the heavy lifting of re-thinking, reorganizing, and re-prioritizing government. Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio has pointed out that the average cost for a Phoenix city employee is $100,000. In just the past six years, the City of Phoenix budget grew by 59.6 percent, more than double the sum of inflation and population growth.

The current economic downturn started early in 2007, but the fiscal 2010 budget was the first time that Phoenix actually reduced overall spending. Operating expenditures were cut by just 0.6 percent. The General Fund budget, currently only 44 percent of the total budget, saw its first reduction in fiscal 2009.

Clearly, there is a failure by the City of Phoenix to address fundamental reform in the face of shrinking tax revenues.

Tax The Poor To Benefit The Rich

In 6 years the Phoenix budget increased a whopping 59%!

Earth To Phoenix City Council: At contract renewal time, the unions will be asking for a raise. Will you up the taxes to 4%, then 8%, then 12%? When will you and your bloated bureaucracy have the decency to tell union thugs to go to hell?

Phoenix voters, please stand by council members Sal DiCiccio, Bill Gates and Peggy Neely. They deserve your support. Give the rest of the complete fools the boot, including the mayor. Then elect a mayor willing to declare bankruptcy. That is your only hope.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post ListMike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 07, 2010 08:27 AM

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February 07, 2010 02:32 AM

In light of actual policies coming from Congress and the Obama administration you may be surprised to learn Americans Reject Keynesian Economics.

Richard Nixon once said, “We’re all Keynesians now.” But that was a long time ago, and it’s certainly not the case anymore (if it ever was).

While influential 20th Century economist John Maynard Keynes would say it’s best to increase deficit spending in tough economic times, only 11% of American adults agree and think the nation needs to increase its deficit spending at this time. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 70% disagree and say it would be better to cut the deficit.

In fact, 59% think Keynes had it backwards and that increasing the deficit at this time would hurt the economy rather than help. To help the economy, most Americans (56%) believe that cutting the deficit is the way to go.

83% Blame Deficit on Politicians

Placing blame squarely where it belongs, 83% Blame Deficit on Politicians’ Unwillingness To Cut Spending.

Eighty-three percent (83%) of Americans say the size of the federal budget deficit is due more to the unwillingness of politicians to cut government spending than to the reluctance of taxpayers to pay more in taxes.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just nine percent (9%) of adults put more blame on the unwillingness of taxpayers to pay more in taxes.

Ninety-four percent (94%) of Republicans and 91% of voters not affiliated with either major party place the blame on politicians, and two-thirds (66%) of Democrats agree.

Just 11% of all voters now think the government spends taxpayers’ money wisely and well. Seventy-eight percent (78%) do not believe that to be true.

Again, 90% or more of GOP voters and unaffiliateds don’t think the government handles taxpayers’ money well, compared to 54% of Democrats.

Republicans Trusted More On Key Issues

Please consider Trust on Issues

Voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on nine out of 10 key issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports.

But the latest national survey finds that the two major political parties are much closer this month on the top issue of the economy. Forty-six percent (46%) of voters trust the GOP more on economic issues, while 42% trust Democrats more. Another 12% are undecided. Last month, Republicans held an 11-point edge on the issue and had a 12-point lead in November.

In fact, the latest results mark the highest level of trust in Democrats on economic issues since last May.

Among voters nationwide, 81% see the economy as a very important issue.

Among voters not affiliated with either party, Republicans lead 45% to 32% on economic issues over Democrats. Mainstream voters heavily favor the GOP on economic issues, 58% to 28%. Those in the Political Class trust Democrats more, 84% to 16%.

The plurality of voters (37%) still doesn’t know which party to trust more on government ethics and corruption, an issue voters place second in terms of importance. Democrats now hold a small 33% to 30% edge on the issue, after the parties were tied in January.

Republicans hold double-digit leads over Democrats in terms of trust on the issues of taxes, health care, Social Security, immigration and abortion. In January, Republicans held just a three-point lead on health care.

Forty-six percent (46%) of voters favor a tax cut for all Americans, while 35% are opposed. Forty-one percent (41%) prefer a budget deficit with tax cuts over a balanced budget that requires higher taxes, but 36% favor the opposite approach.

On national security, Republicans are trusted more by a 49% to 40% margin after leading by 17 points in January. This marks the first poll to show Republicans earning less than 50% of voters’ trust on the issue since August of last year.

Recent polling shows that voter confidence in U.S. efforts in the War on Terror is near its lowest level in recent years. Only 36% of voters say the United States is safer today than it was before the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, marking the lowest level of confidence since Rasmussen polling first asked the question in 2002.

Partisan Trends

Here's some encouraging news on partisan trends. The Number of Unaffiliateds Jumps to Highest Total Since 2007.

In January, the number of Americans identifying themselves as Democrats fell another tenth-of-a-percentage point. Now the number of Democrats is at the lowest level recorded in more than seven years of monthly tracking by Rasmussen Reports.

However, in January, the number of Republicans in the country dropped by nearly two percentage points.

Currently, 35.4% of American adults view themselves as Democrats. That’s down from 35.5% a month ago and 36.0 two months ago. Prior to last month, the lowest total ever recorded for Democrats was 35.9%, a figure that was reached twice in 2005.

The number of Republicans is now down to 32.3%. The number of Republicans in the country has stayed between 32.3% and 34.05% in every month for the past 18 months.

The number of adults not affiliated with either major party is now up to 32.3%. That’s the highest number of unaffiliateds since the summer of 2007.

This is a welcome trend as it shows ambivalence if not outright mistrust of both parties. It is also a sign that we are going to see a lot of turnover this Autumn. Let's hope so. I am increasingly of the point of view Republicans stand a good chance at recapturing the House.

When In Doubt, Vote Them Out

I see no reason to trust either party. Moreover, I am hoping voters decide to adopt my policy "When In Doubt, Vote Them Out", this autumn. Of course, you should also vote out those you know without a doubt are pathetic, starting with anyone whose grand solution is to raise taxes or spend more money.

We need to send a message to Congress and a nice clean sweep would do it.
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post ListMike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 07, 2010 02:18 AM

While pondering the already stressed housing situation, please consider What Remodelers Need to Know About the EPA's Lead Paint Rule.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Lead: Renovation, Repair and Painting rule governing the work of professional remodelers in homes where there is lead-based paint was published in the Federal Register on Earth Day, April 22. The rule will take effect in April 2010.

The rule addresses remodeling and renovation projects disturbing more than six square feet of potentially contaminated painted surfaces for all residential and multifamily structures built prior to 1978 that are inhabited or frequented by pregnant women and children under the age of six.

1. Training and Certification

Beginning in April 2010, firms working in pre-1978 homes will need to be certified. Along with the firm certification, an employee will also need to be certified as a Certified Renovator. This employee will be responsible for training other employees and overseeing work practices and cleaning. The training curriculum is an eight-hour class with two hours of hands-on training. Both the firm and Certified Renovator certifications are valid for five years. A Certified Renovator must take a four-hour refresher course to be recertified.

2. Work Practices

Once work starts on a pre-1978 renovation, the Certified Renovator has a number of responsibilities. Before the work starts this person will post warning signs outside the work area and supervise setting up containment to prevent spreading dust. The rule lists specific containment procedures for both interior and exterior projects. It forbids certain work practices including open flame or torch burning, use of a heat gun that exceeds 1100°F, and high-speed sanding and grinding unless the tool is equipped with a HEPA exhaust control. Once the work is completed, the regulation specifies cleaning and waste disposal procedures. Clean up procedures must be supervised by a certified renovator.

3. Verification and Record Keeping

After clean up is complete the certified renovator must verify the cleaning by matching a cleaning cloth with an EPA verification card. If the cloth appears dirtier or darker than the card the cleaning must be repeated.

A complete file of records on the project must be kept by the certified renovator for three years.
.....

I am not sure how many homes still have lead paint (remember paint on top of paint on top of paint, not just fresh paint) , but those that do are going to cost a lot more to remodel starting Earth Day, April 22.

Addendum:

Here are a few comments worth considering.

Black Swan: This looks like a law contrived by the big home builders.

Hell Is Like Newark: I took the certification course for the new EPA rules last week. I figured it will add about $1500 to $2000 in costs to a typical suburban home when I upgrade the insulation in a home.

Hell Is Like Newark: Enforcement hasn't been worked out yet. Some States like NY are choosing to enforce it on their own. Contractors will likely have to show their EPA certifications when the renew their permits. The EPA could also offer a part of the $32,500 fine for non-compliance to local building departments if they inspect job sites to make sure the rules are being followed.

Taperwood: Speaking with a little knowledge of the building industry, this will be one of the most ignored laws in the business. Like the speed limit, it simply cannot be enforced. The pre-1978 housing stock is enormous, and the government wants these homes upgraded as quickly as possible. They are cutting their legs out from under themselves.

Mish: Not so fast Taperwood. I think you underestimate the willingness of states, especially California, to punish businesses, hoping to bail out BART and other insanities.

Lori In NC: I love great old architecture, especially some of the older homes that we have here in the US. I find it sad to think that this might deter folks from buying older historical homes that need repair and restoration.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post ListMike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 07, 2010 01:12 AM

Around the turn of the year I became engrossed in underwear and football, partially due to Christmas Day "bomber" Umar and his appearance in a Glasgow Celtic football strip - somehow managing to bag this all up with Tiger Woods, partly due to the balls and cat connection. (Catastrophe, Bright sparks)












We have this week seen a reincarnation of this theme with the ongoing media saga of England football captain, John Terry, who has been caught with his pants down, so to speak, after being exposed as another ladies man; his main conquest being Vanessa Perroncel, a French lingerie model and ex partner of his friend and former team mate Wayne Bridge. Terry is currently captain of Chelsea, a team with strong "connections" to (Protestant/Orange) Glasgow Rangers, not least their "lion" emblazoned emblem. Yesterday he was stripped of his captain's role with the national side.

"Chelsea were founded on 14 March 1905 at The Rising Sun pub"



Matters have also been hot up here in Scotland with Rangers, as their American import, DaMarcus Beasley, had his car firebombed outside his home in Queen's Gardens, the culprits fleeing in an Audi. Speculation has been rife as to the motive with some saying it was Celtic supporters with a grudge, however today it is reported in the Daily Record that Marcus was "playing away from home" with a young lady who's boyfriend " is connected with leading underworld figures in the city". (This links in well with my post Daniels and the Lyons where I noted both a "gangster hit" -the victim in an Audi - and the blackmail of another Rangers football player, Allan McGregor, who again had played away from home and was being threatened with exposure.)

Marcus was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana and briefly signed for Los Angeles Galaxy before making his mark with Chicago Fire




Looking at these two stories with an esoterical eye, and always bearing in mind "my" Prince William "Sun God" theory then again we have the lion, this time on the club crest of both Rangers and Chelsea. The underwear aspect again seems prominent and also from Terry we are led to chocolate (especially given the current Kraft Cadburys take-over), perhaps football or globe shaped, perhaps the orange.


DaMarcus too resonates our ghastly intended future - the firebombing of his BMW in Queens Gardens and his first main club Chicago Fire surely resonating flames and thus the pheonix, reincarnating. Most of all though his birthplace, Indiana, surely indicative of Lady Spencer. The twin Audi vehicles in Glasgow - well, William's Windsor bloodline is German, whilst the four-circles logo says Olympics all over, and the London Olympics is surely the springboard for "greater" things.

What about the infidelity though, where are we headed ?

Well today we see Prince Harry at Twickenham for the Six Nations rugby tournament where England will play Wales, the game marking 100 years since the first international at that venue. In addition, he will become vice-patron of England's Rugby Football Union, coincidentally the day after John Terry was stripped of his national captainship of the football team. Almost like a yin-yang, good guy -bad guy balancing effect.

Perhaps, looking forward in time and given Harry has a girlfriend, coincidentally named Chelsy, we should be prepared for Dirty Harry:




and thus his brother placed in even better light.

cheers

BBC rugby event

February 06, 2010 10:14 PM

Filed under: Advertising Tagged: New Promo, Vatican Assassins

February 06, 2010 09:19 PM

In testimony this week before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair declared unequivocally that Al Qaeda would attempt to attack the United States within the next six months.  “The priority is certain, I would say,” he told the Committee.

This recalls nothing so much as the startling August 6, 2001 item in the President’s Daily Brief (PDB) that was entitled “Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US” (pdf).

But the 2001 warning to President Bush was classified at the highest possible level and remained secret for years thereafter, until it was finally dislodged at the insistence of the 9/11 Commission.  In contrast, DNI Blair’s comparable statement was openly presented and was about as public as it could be.

Why should that be so?  Clearly the political circumstances for the two warnings are different, as are the venues in which they were delivered.  But it is also true that the parameters of official secrecy are subject to change.  Yesterday’s top secret might not even qualify as today’s front-page news.

The boundaries of official secrecy will be examined at a conference at the New School in New York City on February 24-26 on “Limiting Knowledge in a Democracy.”

“There is no question that the free access to knowledge and information are the bedrock of all democratic societies, yet no democratic society can function without limits on what can be known, what ought to be kept confidential and what must remain secret,” according to the conference overview. “The tension among these competing ends is ever present and continuously raises questions about the legitimacy of limits. What limits are necessary to safeguard and protect a democratic polity? What limits undermine it?”

I will be speaking on February 26 on “National Security Secrecy: How the Limits Change.”

February 06, 2010 08:54 PM

In response to Are Teachers To Blame For Economic Illiteracy? I received more emails than on anything else I have ever written.

I expected a lot of hate mail from teachers but that was not the case. Most were positive or at least neutral. Many of them are worth printing and indeed I will do bigger sampling later.

Here is an email from Canada that offered a concrete suggestion on one particular problem.

A Canadian Teacher Writes:

Hi Mish,

I teach and class size has not been shrinking everywhere. In British Columbia, the student to teacher ratio has increased 10%. Smaller class size provisions were completely stripped and teachers were left with a huge workload and pay falling much faster behind the cost of living than other public sector workers.

The biggest waste of taxpayer's money is inclusion.

When we were growing up students were held back if they did not meet academic requirements and students that you find in a classroom today were in special programs. For example, I have a 16-year-old girl with about grade 1 skills and nothing will ever change that.

Given a pile of coins, it takes her 5 minutes to figure out which coins add up to $1.38. She is also more like an 8-year-old then a 16-year-old and highly disruptive. The education system truly is never going to do anything for her. Unfortunately, she puts a huge stress on the class everyday and is required to be there. I have another with about grade 3 skills.

These kids will never graduate with a high school diploma, but they will get a leaving certificate.

Instead they should be in a completely separate program that does not worry so much about academics for them. This grade 1 ability girl is never going to be independent and she knows she cannot do math and it absolutely kills her self esteem and it is awful for her to be there daily.

Inclusion has truly increased a teacher's workload at the same time reduced the overall quality of education. A lot of what teachers were fighting for with smaller classes was to deal with the much larger range of student ability in a classroom.

It seems to me that it was more economical to not have these kids in a regular school program and to require students to repeat or go to summer school if they are not keeping up academically.

Teachers have lost a lot of control over kids who now understand there is no summer school consequence for just deciding they don't feel like doing their work. They get passed ahead regardless of academic ability because inclusion says keep them with their grade level peers.

Thanks "Canadian Teacher".

I could not use her name out of fear of reprisal. Teachers are just not allowed to say anything against administration or school board decisions. Clearly this is a failed policy decision.

Is this a result of "No Child Left Behind" kinds of programs like we have here in the US?

Such policies ensure that in any class with such disruptive students, all children (in that class) will be left behind. No doubt the parents of such kids think their students deserve $million programs to help their kids catch up.

Sorry folks. We need some rules.

Proposed Rules

• Kids should be required to keep up, and if they cannot keep up (within a one grade window), then those kids need to repeat a grade.
• Repeat a grade twice and you are out.
• Repetitive class disruption and you are out.
• No sports or extracurricular activities for kids in the bottom 15% of the class.
• Teachers rigging grades to keep someone on the team will be fired.
• Merit pay for teachers
• Combat pay for good teachers willing to teach in troubled inner-city schools

Teachers should be more than baby sitters, and students who are disruptive and hopelessly behind should be kicked out of school. "No Child Left Behind" programs that push kids along whether they are ready or not, really means "All Children Left Behind".

Keeping hopeless teachers in the system does the same thing. It is high time for merit pay for teachers as well as "combat pay" for exceptional teachers willing to teach in troubled inner-city schools. Unions are against both those ideas.

Addendum:

There are a few good responses to this post already.

Waxwing:

No Child Left Behind = No Child Gets Ahead

Tin Hat:

A teacher friend of mine claims that a class can only learn as much as the slowest student.

In these cases, the brilliant are marginalized in favor of those who, through no fault of their own, can not learn. This kind of setting is not only bad for the gifted and the average, it's bad for the challenged. Every one loses.

Society has a very serious problem of playing pretend. Pretend deficits don't matter, pretend the challenged can keep up, pretend the smart aren't dumbed down, pretend rewarding failure creates success, pretend globalism works, pretend banks are solvent, pretend jobs don't matter, pretend unemployment is under 10%, pretend the market is sound, pretend Capital Hill listens to their constituents, pretend campaign donations aren't bribes, pretend the US hasn't gone corporatist, pretend the economy has recovered...pretend, pretend, pretend.

Gildas:

Social engineers refuse to recognize the difference between stupidity and ignorance: the latter can be corrected, but the former cannot be because it is innate.

Ignorance abounds in education, and stupidity seems to be catching up.

Steve:

When I started High School, way back in the 70s, I went to a very academically rigorous School. There were different tracks for students with different abilities. I was placed in advanced math, science and English tracks. I loved it. After years of sitting in classes waiting for the other students to catch up I was finally challenged and forced to push myself.

But then we moved. We moved to a progressive area outside San Francisco that embraced the new doctrine of "inclusion". The worst readers were lumped with the best readers. Those who couldn't add and subtract were lumped with those who were ready for Trig and Calculus. This meant that everything was always geared to the slowest.

There were no advanced classes in math or science or anything else because that was thought to stigmatize the less intelligent and make them feel dumb. Some teachers didn't believe in grades. Some teachers didn't believe in homework. It was SO very progressive.

The end result was that my last three years of high school were a waste. I've always resented the fact that my education was stunted because the needs of the slow, the average and the uncaring students were put above those of the best students. The few who loved to learn and were capable of making great progress were shunted aside.

And this was back in the day before disruptive students and hostile parents became the norm. I shudder to think what High School must be like for the academically gifted now.

Our public school system now exists primarily to babysit and to regiment and to perpetuate the jobs of educators. It's not about education because only one in ten students even cares about learning. I'd be perfectly happy to see the massive bureaucratic public school systems broken up. Let people keep their taxes and send their kids to private schools. Let a variety of private schools spring up that serve the needs of various students - schools that would be free to boot the bad apples. People recoil in horror when you mention this idea but the public school system is a perfect candidate to be privatized.

Indeed, public education should be privatized. Disruptive kids would be kicked out of class. Pay would be on merit. Those left behind would be those who should be left behind. What a difference!

Steve B via Email:

Mish, if you haven't discovered him, John Taylor Gatto has a couple of books on the topic of Public Schooling that I consider must reads.

If you want to read him online, you can do so here: Underground History of American Education.

He wrote a more succinct summary of that material and you can get that from Amazon:
Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling

Regards,
Steve B

Thanks Steve B.

In looking that up, I see a book that John Taylor Gatto endorses on the back cover. It's called Radical Unschooling - A revolution Has Begun.

Gatow writes: "Full of brilliant common sense! Mrs. Martin takes us behind the curtain to see in rich detail what alternative education really looks like when it bestows on its subjects the freedom to choose. Every parent who feels compelled to give their kids into the care of total strangers should read this book."

Shannon via Email writes:

Great read, Mish.

All things have a price. It’s how we make decisions on everything we do. I’m sure you’re well aware of this. And, if this is true, then what is the price of an education? This is the great unknown. Of course, we can tally all the money that comes in and divide it by the number of students and say this is the cost of an education, but such numbers are distorted.

In a socialistic industry such as education, it is impossible to attach any meaningful price tag to the product. The parents of the students have a belief that the education is free. This in turn sends a signal to the industry that there is no scarcity of resources (mainly money).

When there is a belief of no scarcity in resources, there are no free market forces to keep the checks and balances in place and spending always gets out of control.

I send my kids to a private school and because of the rising cost of resources in the public sector it is driving up the cost in the private sector (I'm almost priced out of the market).

I would love to see the public education competing on the free market with a private education. When that happens then the true price of an education would be revealed and all jobs related to this industry would have their day of reckoning.

This “price” would also force parents to be more active in their kid’s education and take away the “baby sitter” effect for the teachers. The free market would fix everything wrong with the system. I know… this is merely a dream.

P.S. I’ve started getting into the habit of asking people the price question for everything… especially for our military and war. It works great and really gets them thinking.

Keep up the great work!

Shannon

Thank you Shannon.
That was a tremendous response.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post ListMike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 06, 2010 08:30 PM

February 06, 2010 11:51 AM

Following on from Snakers, today's mail on line has an interesting article on the connections between Virgin mogul Richard Branson's children and their "royal connections". (Click snap to enlarge)
I am attempting to write a post revolving round John Terry (the English Tiger Woods) and DaMarcus Beasley - an American soccer player in Glasgow who's car was firebombed last week, apparently by gangsters in revenge for an alleged tryst with a young lady. Hopefully it will be sorted soon.
cheers

February 06, 2010 10:00 AM

Written by Bruce Walker
Saturday, 06 February 2010 12:00



It is hard to imagine how a National Prayer Breakfast could be controversial, but it has become that. This tradition stretching back through five decades of American political life and including every American president during that period, has become controversial under President Obama. A gathering which has included people as diverse as Tony Blair and Mother Teresa has somehow come to be seen as exclusionary. How?

The National Prayer Breakfast, although very inclusive, does have some framework. The same broad Judeo-Christian values that were recognized early by the Founding Fathers are part of the event. Those values inevitably involve some proscribed actions and beliefs. Atheism, for example, is incompatible with the National Prayer Breakfast. Prayers, after all, are directed at a divine being.

In fact, the National Prayer Breakfast is supported by a Christian organization called the “Fellowship” or the “Family.” Those ideologically on the Left have begun to openly call for political leaders to attend alternative prayer events, with the emphasis on those areas in which traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs are deemed no longer in synch with modern life.

President Obama, when he addressed the National Prayer Breakfast, called for a return to civility in politics. He equated the lack of “civility” with citizens pressing their claim that Obama was not actually born in the United States. Obama also equated the lack of “civility” with those the sincerity of Obama’s faith. He also specifically tied “civility” to common efforts by “Americans of faith, and no faith, united around a common purpose.”

The president’s remarks seemed to minimize the importance of the traditional religious faith of Christians and of Jews in favor of a sort of Confucian protocol of manners, a society of communal rather that personal good works, and a religious vessel so hollowed out as to effectively be agnostic or atheistic. Stripping traditional spiritual values, the foundational principles of our nation, out of the National Prayer Breakfast seems part of a broad attack on those parts of religion that place stop signs on immoral behavior. The emphasis of Obama on “civility,” while not wrong per se, appears to make hurt feelings, acceptance at any cost, and the inclusion of every type of behavior as moral behavior always able to trump the idea that there are objective wrongs or sinful behavior, that preachers and prophets (in the tradition of Jews and Christians) condemn such behavior no matter how popular it might be, and that divine forgiveess requires repentance and remorse.

The National Prayer Breakfast, a private event, was never intended to end religious values in the name of tolerance. It was intended instead to celebrate those values that priests, ministers, and rabbis throughout American history have championed and preserved. Although those values are broad, like America, the values are not infinitely malleable or subject to political or popular modification.

Photo of Obama at National Prayer Breakfast: AP Images ..Source:http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/culture/family/2893-obama-misses-point-on-prayer-breakfast.

February 06, 2010 09:57 AM

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Mark Hitchcock on Hope in a Cashless Society


By Nathan Jones

Knowing a cashless society is a sign the end of this age is near, is there any hope?
Dr. David Reagan and I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Mark Hitchcock on the show Christ in Prophecy. Mark is a leading Bible prophecy expert, prolific author who has penned over 20 books on the end times, senior pastor of Faith Bible Church located in Oklahoma, and adjunct faculty member of the Dallas Theological Seminary. He is also a much in demand speaker at Bible prophecy conferences all over the nation.
Dr. Hitchcock was invited to answer questions based his book Cashless: Bible Prophecy, Economic Chaos, and the Future Financial Order. It concerns the world presently teetering on financial chaos, global interdependency, and modern technology all converging in such a way that a cashless society and one-world economy are not only possible, but inevitable.


Hope in a Cashless Society

Dr. Hitchcock: I ended my book Cashless with a chapter titled "Cashless and You, Dollars and Cents." I always like at the end of my books to convey one of the main purposes for writing these books — that if someone doesn't know Christ I give them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For those of us who know the Lord, I also give some practical challenges and admonitions. I end with some hope.

If a person doesn't know the Lord, one of the things I talk about in that last chapter is that we can talk all we want to about the coming cashless society, but right now we have a present Christ-less society. For those people who don't know Jesus Christ, accepting His salvation is the ultimate thing they need to do.

A beautiful thing is the Lord offers us the Gospel and forgiveness of our sins without any cost — it is a free gift. That great news is the greatest news in all the world! We have a Gospel that is free and doesn't cost us anything. Now, let me be clear — it cost God. It cost Christ His life there on the cross, but it is free to you and me to accept.

Just thinking about the whole issue of economics worries people a lot. We end up thinking too much about money. I understand money is important to our lives, and God knows that, but God can take care of us financially if we'll trust in Him. If we will be faithful with what He has given to us, and faithful in giving and sharing and being generous, then we can be assured all our needs will be met by Him.

We should never trust in money. There are a whole lot of warnings about trusting money in the Bible. Remember the church of Laodicea thought they were self-sufficient, saying we don't have need of anything, and yet they were so spiritually poor. Money is a great slave, but it is a terrible master. Let's make sure in our lives that while we work hard we do the things that God has called us to do and be good stewards of the money He has entrusted us with.

Don't allow money to dominate your life, because Jesus said you can't serve both God and money. When people allow money to dominate their lives and then the economy goes sour, people feel hopeless and so start jumping out of windows and blowing their brains out and hanging themselves. Their hope in money has failed them. Instead, our hope is in Jesus Christ and His coming.

What I call the "Sign Posts of Armageddon" are lining up. All of this globalism that we see taking place are those sign posts. The move towards a cashless society is another one of these sign posts. When we see these things happening today, we should be lead to believe that the coming of Jesus Christ will be very near. Such a realization should motivate us to live for Him in these last days in which we live.

Difficult economic times create one of the best times to reach people with the Gospel. People are looking for hope because they are desperate. Christians have hope — the Gospel — a word that even means "Good News."

Give those people out there hope! .Source:http://www.lamblion.us/2010/02/mark-hitchcock-on-hope-in-cashless.html.

February 06, 2010 08:25 AM

In a welcome display of fiscal sanity, Utah state Senator Dan Liljenquist has proposed doing away with defined benefit plans for state employees. His proposal would eliminate such plans for new hires, effective July 1, 2011.

The Salt Lake Tribune covers the story in Retirement rumble ready to roll.

Depending on whom you talk to, the state retirement system that covers 182,000 current and former public employees is either a toxic mess, or a system that suffered a setback but doesn't need an urgent overhaul.

That disagreement -- surely to be one of the defining battles of the 2010 session -- will be thrust into the forefront in the coming days as Sen. Dan Liljenquist, R-Bountiful, plows ahead with his bills to restructure the retirement system, and the public employee unions push back with opposition from the thousands of members they represent.

The economic slump cost the state 22 percent of the pension fund's overall value and blew a $6.5 billion hole in the long-term needs.

The state can either keep pumping $400 million into the system -- enough to hire 8,000 new teachers -- or it can change the system to ensure its long-term stability.

A set of bills Liljenquist is proposing would essentially do away with the state's defined-benefit pension system for new employees. Instead, those hired after July 1, 2011, could either put 8 percent of their salary into a 401(k)-style program, or put part of it into a defined benefit pension plan with greatly reduced benefits.

Audry Wood, executive director of the Utah Public Employees Association, said everyone recognizes the damage done by the economic downturn, and they are not opposing changes, if they are needed. "What type of employees are you going to be able to recruit offering benefits like that?" she asks. "You're going to have crappy benefits and crappy pay?"

I propose Ms. Wood stand on the corner and hold up a sign "Workers wanted. No benefits" and see how many apply. For every qualified person that does, I propose firing one union employee.

Liljenquist's proposal would guarantee the benefits of all existing workers. The alternative is probable bankruptcy of the pension fund, all for the sake of future hires they have not even met.

"We are going to meet 100 percent of our obligations to current employees," Liljenquist said. "I can look my neighbor in the eye who's 15 years in [as a public employee] and say, 'I'm doing this for you.'"

Given the horrendous shape of Utah's pension plans, Liljenquist's plan is extremely generous. However, in a blatantly stupid act, the labor unions have a rally planned to protest the proposed changes. Unions always want more.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 06, 2010 08:01 AM

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU
Will Rockefeller build 3rd Temple?

Internet abuzz with report of biblical proportions ...
Posted: February 03, 201011:55 pm Eastern
By Aaron Klein© 2010 WorldNetDaily
Temple Mount in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM – A Rockefeller is raising capital to rebuild the Jewish Temple, said the news release published on CNN Money's Internet site and other news sources.
The plan would include a united Jewish and Palestinian Arab state. A Jewish group promoting the rebuilding of the Temple was reported to be cooperating.
The story spread virally through the evangelical Christian blogosphere.
But it was all part of an elaborate hoax.
The release, filed with MarketWire and republished at CNNMoney.com, claims "Supriem David Rockefeller" is director of a company, Kinti Holdings group, which is working with a Jewish Temple organization to rebuild the Third Temple.
States the release: "Kinti Holdings will be raising funds to go towards building the Third Temple in Jerusalem in strict coordinance with The Temple Institute, Rabbi Hiam Richman and The Palestinian National Interest Committee (PNIC) and supporting Husam Bajis for President of Palestine."
Richman, international director of the Temple Institute, a Jewish Temple activist group, told WND the release is a "scam."

"The Temple Institute strongly protests the use of its name and that of Rabbi Chaim Richman in a series of fraudulent press releases and advertising claims that are now circulating on the Internet," read the Temple Institute's official response to the release.
Understanding the future from the past, get "Prophecies for the Era of Muslim Terror"
Continued the Institute's response: "The claims made by these men ... are false and malicious, and their apparent intentions are to take advantage of the Temple Institute's sincere supporters and rob them of funds. The Temple Institute advises its friends and supporters to avoid being taken in by this scam."
The original "Rockefeller" press release about rebuilding the Third Temple, however, has been spreading like wildfire on Christian websites and blogs.
The release was filed with MarketWire, a leading newswire service. A spokesman for Marketwire did not immediately return a WND request for comment. Is it not uncommon for newswire services to post releases without first fact-checking the content. CNNMoney.com routinely reprints business press releases.
The company that filed the release, Kinti Holdings, has a track record of making strange announcements.
On Monday, Kinti filed a release using the Rockefeller name and claiming it is seeking "a debt/equity swap" with "any and all national brand name corporations."
Another release claimed the company is partnering with "Supriem David Rockefeller" and his "$500 million" worth of entertainment business. The release says Rockefeller is a "financial magnate with strong ties to the entertainment industry."
Yesterday, hours after a WND request for comment on the Third Temple announcement was sent to the sole e-mail address listed for Kinti, the company posted a statement claiming, "Kinti is now conducting Due Diligence of a Major National Brand Name Chain concerning debt for equity and will enter into a mandatory quiet period."
The "management" section of Kinti's website states, "All of the previous Officers, Directors and Board of Directors have resigned. Richard Byrd has been appointed the new CEO and the only member of the Board of Directors."
The company claims to own a mine in Guyana, South America, but doesn't specify where the mine is other than pointing to a Google Earth map. The site posts a picture of what it claims is a mining permit from Guyana.
Who is Supriem David Rockefeller?
As for "Supriem David Rockefeller"? A spokesman for the Rockefeller Foundation told WND he doesn't exist.
A routine web search for the name brings up scores of conspiracy websites claiming, among other things, that "Supriem" is a secretive 34-year old heir to the Rockefeller dynasty who is fighting for a New World Order.
One site says it found Supriem really is a con artist and convicted thief who goes by different names and lives in Williamson County, Tennessee.
Some outlandish claims about "Surpiem" include:
Supriem has DNA from different races, including Anunnaki, Draco Triple Helix, Elohim and more. He has triple helix blue blood in a chimera state with red blood and more than one DNA sequence, which is what chimera is. His triple helix is the reptilian blood.
Supriem has a fortune in the trillions and is seeking to finance a high-speed bullet train.
Supriem exerts enormous influence over Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Henry Kissinger, who are working on a "counter-New World Order."
Rebuilding Third Temple
While the Third Temple press release may be a hoax, the Temple Institute is anything but. The group is involved in restoring a Jewish presence to the Temple Mount, where current Israeli laws bar Jews from ascending the Mount during most hours of the day while Muslims are granted nearly 24-hour access.
The Temple Institute also focuses on preparation for the rebuilding of the Third Temple. The group has been preparing ritual objects suitable for Temple use. Many of the more than 90 ritual items to be used in the Temple have been re-made to the highest standards the Temple Institute.
The First Temple was built by King Solomon in the 10th century B.C. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Second Temple was rebuilt in 515 B.C. after Jerusalem was freed from Babylonian captivity. That temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in A.D. 70. Each temple stood for a period of about four centuries.
The Temple was the center of religious worship for ancient Israelites. It housed the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and was said to be the area upon which God's presence dwelt. All biblical holidays centered on worship at the Temple. The Temples served as the primary location for the offering of sacrifices and were the main gathering place for Israelites.
According to the Talmud, the world was created from the foundation stone of the Temple Mount. It's believed to be the biblical Mount Moriah, the location where Abraham fulfilled God's test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac.
The Temple Mount has remained a focal point for Jewish services for thousands of years. Prayers for a return to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple have been uttered by Jews since the Second Temple was destroyed, according to Jewish tradition.
The Al Aqsa Mosque was constructed in about A.D. 709 to serve as a shrine near another shrine, the Dome of the Rock, which was built by an Islamic caliph. Al Aqsa was meant to mark what Muslims came to believe was the place at which Muhammad, the founder of Islam, ascended to heaven to receive revelations from Allah.
Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Quran. It is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible 656 times.
Islamic tradition states Muhammad took a journey in a single night on a horse from "a sacred mosque" – believed to be in Mecca in southern Saudi Arabia – to "the farthest mosque" and from a rock there ascended to heaven. The farthest mosque became associated with Jerusalem about 120 years ago.
According to research by Israeli Author Shmuel Berkovits, Islam historically disregarded Jerusalem as being holy. Berkovits points out in his new book, "How Dreadful Is this Place!" that Muhammad was said to loathe Jerusalem and what it stood for. He wrote Muhammad made a point of eliminating pagan sites of worship and sanctifying only one place – the Kaaba in Mecca – to signify the unity of God.
As late as the 14th century, Islamic scholar Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, whose writings influenced the Wahhabi movement in Arabia, ruled that sacred Islamic sites are to be found only in the Arabian Peninsula and that "in Jerusalem, there is not a place one calls sacred, and the same holds true for the tombs of Hebron."
A guide to the Temple Mount by the Supreme Muslim Council in Jerusalem published in 1925 listed the Mount as Jewish and as the site of Solomon's Temple. The Temple Institute acquired a copy of the official 1925 "Guide Book to Al-Haram Al-Sharif," which states on page 4, "Its identity with the site of Solomon's Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which 'David built there an altar unto the Lord.'" .Source:http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=124105.

February 06, 2010 07:58 AM

Is Cremation Appropriate for Christians?
Rev. Richard D. Phillips • Question Box
Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia • July 9, 2000
Copyright reserved • Internet access via http://www.tenth.org/


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Tonight’s question is about the propriety of cremation for the bodies of Christians after death. The question reads as follows: “I recognize we should respect and care for the body God has given us. Does this rule out cremation for Christians? Is there any biblical teaching or guideline?”
Sometimes Christians worry that if their body is cremated they will be ineligible for the resurrection, mainly on physical grounds. If the body is consumed by fire, how can it be resurrected? The counter-argument is that bodies that are buried also disintegrate. When it comes to the resurrection I freely admit that a vast miracle is needed, and I trust God, who made everything out of nothing, to sort out the molecules. Therefore, I want to begin by stating that there is no reason to worry about the possibility of resurrection after cremation.

We always want to ask what the Bible has to say, and the Bible has an awful lot to say about death. First, I must confess that I find no command in Scripture against cremation. Nonetheless I think a summary of the biblical data will show if not a commandment against cremation, at least a clear hostility to this mode of dealing with human remains.

From the earliest times in the Bible, burial constituted the proper means of dealing with dead bodies. When Abraham’s wife Sarah died – and this is the first formal burial I find in Scripture – burial tombs were used (Gen. 23:4-6). Abraham’s family were all buried in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre (25:9). Many years later, when the first high priest, Aaron, died, we are told that he was buried (Dt. 10:9). The death of Moses is perhaps particularly instructive:

And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab, as the LORD had said. He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. Dt. 34:5-6

It was God who dealt with Moses’ bodily remains and he buried him in the ground. In Dt. 21, a stipulation is made that even a capital criminal who is put to death is accorded the right to be buried (v. 22). Of course, the great example in the Bible is the record of the burial of Jesus Christ. Mt. 27:57-59 tells of Joseph of Arimathea gaining permission from Pilate to bury our Lord’s body in a new tomb cut out of the rock.

From very early in the Bible we also find the use of perfumes and spices to prepare the body for the grave. 2 Chronicles 16:14 observes that this happened for the body of King Asa. The intent was not really preservation, as in Egyptian mummification, but purification of the body. John 19:39 tells of the great amount of myrrh and aloes and spices used by Joseph and Nicodemus for the preparation of Jesus’ body. The body, though dead, still warranted love and care.

What about cremation? The Bible does mention it. In Joshua 7, Joshua proclaimed that whoever was found with the dedicated items stolen from Jericho “shall be destroyed by fire, along with all that belongs to him” (7:15). When it was discerned that a man named Achan was the guilty party, the Israelites stoned and cremated his entire household, including his animal livestock (v. 25). Leviticus 20:14 calls for the burning of a man who marries a woman and her mother. The same was true for any priest’s daughter who became a prostitute (Lev. 21:9). There are other examples, but you get the picture. Burning of human remains spoke of judgment on sin, which also will be, the Bible says, by fire.

It is always the case that our views of the afterlife will influence how we handle the bodies of those who have died. That is true not just of Christians but of everybody else. Our theology will shape the way we approach all of life’s great events, be they childbirth, marriage, the coming of the annual harvest, etc.

Let’s first deal with the theologies aligned with cremation. In the ancient world there were a variety of reasons. Some peoples seem to have feared the dead and so they wanted to get rid of them. More sophisticated people, like the later Greeks and Romans, who greatly favored cremation, seem to have been guided by philosophical views that downgraded the body in comparison to the spirit. Just about all the ancient philosophies had little use for the body. In general, cremation does reflect a low view of the body after death, however one may view the fate of the liberated soul.

What about today? I took the liberty of checking out various websites advocating cremation on the internet and, to my surprise, the only incentive I saw listed was economic. Cremation is cheaper than burial. But I think there is also a new age mysticism that motivates, however vaguely, renewed interest in cremation today.

The other day I ran across a touching story regarding the spreading of a loved ones’ ashes. The man who had died was a mountain climber and his friends carried his ashes to the top of Mt. McKinley, the highest spot in North America. That is no small feat and it surely expressed real devotion. With great reverence, the friends observed a moment of sileence, after which they let his ashes go so that “his spirit could float above the mountains.” Then they turned around and left.

On one level, I am touched by the gesture, but mainly I think it speaks of the despair that attends death apart from faith in the resurrection. The best we can do is 15 minutes of afterlife fame followed by nothing but warm memories and annihilation by dispersion.

Christian burial is motivated by a far different view of life after death. The New Testament describes those who have died as being “asleep” (1 Cor. 11:30; 15:6, 18, 20, 51). This is not a description of the soul or spirit, for those are not asleep but with the Lord in heaven. It is the body that sleeps, and sleep is a temporary condition. The bodies that sleep – yes, I suppose even those that are decomposed – are awaiting their wake-up call on the resurrection morning.

Without doubt, it is the doctrine of the resurrection of the body that has motivated the Christian practice of burial and the Israelite practice before it. Everywhere Christianity has spread, cremation has given way to proper and respectful burial. Christians have a robust view of the body, both in life and in death. One of the great comforts as we face disease and sickness and death in this life is the knowledge that they will not have the last word. No, it is these bodies that are so integrally a part of ourselves that will be resurrected in glory, imperishable and immortal. And though we acknowledge the physics of the grave we are not in alliance with them, nor with death at any level. The apostle Paul writes, in 1 Thessalonians 4:

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him… For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. (vv. 13-16).

Everything about that description tells us to honor, to preserve, yes, even to dedicate real estate to the bodies of those our beloved who having died are with Christ in the spirit, and awaiting the resurrection of their bodies in the morning of the new creation.
Source:http://www.tenth.org/qbox/qb_000709.htm.

February 06, 2010 07:45 AM

23And I besought the LORD at that time, saying,

24O Lord GOD, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand: for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works, and according to thy might?

25I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.

26But the LORD was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the LORD said unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter.

27Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan.

28But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.

29So we abode in the valley over against Bethpeor. .Deuteronomy 3:23-29..

February 06, 2010 07:15 AM

February 06, 2010 07:04 AM

Mel Gibson acts in, directs, produces, and markets, that which he would wish profitably to have purchased by as large an audience as possible, "entertainment," if not "art."

Art "holds a mirror to life," and "truth" is its "bottom line."

"Mad Max" and "Braveheart" showed great promise, but Mel has made it clear "this fight," he as "dog" is in, is the same "fight" Hitler's echelon was raised to fight by the same catechism's teachings: "the slaughter of one million and one hundred thousand Jews in A.D. 70 Jerusalem by noble Roman soldiers was proof of the Divine Judgment against those who murdered Our Saviour."

Financed by the cashflow of Roman Catholic collection plates in the U.S., through the Rockefeller family/Vatican bank and Prescott Bush as middle man, the author of "I Paid Hitler," papal baron Fritz "The Rockefeller of Germany" Thyssen, provided the seed money for the Holocaust on behalf of Rome's "Black Aristocracy," the descendants of caesars and popes sitting on the same hills in the same castles their families have occupied for two and three thousands of years in Europe.

Their American "Fifth Column," led by members of the Vatican-running Knights of Malta, "contained" the damage of their military's defeat in WWII by hanging a few and permitting tens of thousands to be secreted, through the Croatian Roman Catholic priesthood and the Vatican's "basement," to Latin America or into our own Central Intelligence Agency - "Operation Ratline."

It's an on-going, real "fight," even if only revealed by Mel's "slip of the tongue."

Others have spoken of it outside of the Nazi Era.

Thomas Jefferson, America's Prophet, Founder, and Author, wrote of it in a letter to Samuel Kerchival, identifying Rome - "the Wall Street of slavery" for 2,000 years - as "an engine for enslaving mankind,""the real Anti-Christ."

Mel's "dog" is fighting on the side of the Roman Anti-Christ, so let him market his life and work to sympathetic anti-Semites.

America was founded by whigs - Black, White, Jew, and Gentile. It is their ideals which are yet enshrined in the three mottoes which make up Our Creed.

Whig means "anti-Roman Catholic," from the Scottish term "whiggamore," used as a slur against those Presbyterians and Highlanders who believed it unrighteous to serve under a Roman Catholic monarch.

For thousands of years Rome has practiced ritual persecution of Jews, and others, who "disagree" with their mythology - fully debunked by America's whig Founders (see Jefferson's letter to Peter Carr: crucifixion was punishment for one specific crime under codified Roman law: the second conviction for sedition. Sedition was defined as denying that Caesar was G-d. Palastinian Maronite Roman Catholics are the descendants of Jews who capitulated to the Roman rule in their land, headed up by a Roman "palast," or "baron"). "Pontifex Maximus," then, "Pontifex Maximus" now.

The Holocaust was simply the same policy, effected haphazardly over the ages by the same ruling elite by "sword and flame," with the advantages gained by mass production and the Industrial and Chemical Revolutions. JPII, a Zyklon-B salesman for the Solvay division of I.G. Farben, was a perfect reflection of Roman Europe's guilty conscience. "A Moral Reckoning," by Goldhagen, proves beyond any doubt that "two popes and the Roman Catholic Church are morally, legally, and ethically culpable of the Holocaust."

Hitler was Rome's "catspaw" just as America was, in Vietnam, after Bush1 and Nixon, with an element of the Knight of Malta-led, Roman Catholic CIA, assassinated John Kennedy for ending Rome's bankers' unconstitutional Fed money franchise (EO11,110), and ordering our military withdrawal from Vietnam (NSAM263).

Gibson - who knows full well and good just which "side" of this historic "fight" he's on - American Exceptionalism or Fascism - wants his public to "graciously accept him back" when he demonstrates no grace, honor, humility or American truth?

I think not.

The Anti-Christ's minions, Bush and Cheney, have yet to be brought to justice for having committed 9/11, nor for assassinating King and Kennedy to send us to die for the pope in Indochina, and while it's true one should "know thine enemy," I'd rather patronize artists I can reasonably believe are on the side of whig America and G-d...and not the Roman Anti-Christ, like Mel Gibson.

February 06, 2010 06:17 AM

By Ansel Herz (originally published by Rueters)

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AlertNet) - A gentle breeze blew discarded U.N. biscuit wrappings jerkily across the dust in this makeshift camp in the Haitian capital's most notorious slum.

Each gust threatened to topple the shelters of sticks and sheets that are now home to around 100 families left shelterless by the earthquake.

"We want any help we can find," said Rosemand Bolivar, a grandmother who shares a patch of dirt beneath a faded pink bed sheet with her son, his wife and their three children.

Only the most heavily armed U.N. peacekeepers venture into the sprawling seafront slum of Cite Soleil (Sun City), home to the most feared gangs in Port-au-Prince.

For days security worries prevented U.N. food deliveries - now well established in other parts of Port-au-Prince -- from reaching Cite Soleil. This delayed essential aid for increasingly desperate and hungry people three weeks after the earthquake which devastated the Caribbean state.

The U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) has said it is increasing food distribution around the city and that it now feeds over 100,000 people a day.

But not -- at the start of the week at least -- in Cite Soleil.

"There has been an upsurge in gang violence in the last few days so we haven't been able to distribute food in Cite Soleil," Marcus Prior, WFP's spokesman in Port-au-Prince, said on Monday.

But by Thursday two sites in the slum were up and running, bringing the total in the city to 16, he said.

"We are encouraged," he said, "but there is still a long way to go."

But at the camp in Cite Soleil, some debated the merits of the little food aid that the WFP had managed to deliver earlier on ad hoc missions accompanied by U.N. troops.

Judette Cange said she knows the high-energy biscuits, called bon-bon, are packed with vitamins, but she will not give them to her children.

"They have ants in them. They have insects and they have expired already," she said, pointing to the brown crackers.

"We need rice, water, and tents. We don't want bad food."

A few white plastic wrappers are littered about the camp. They have expiry dates that are one or two days past due. Residents said they were given out by U.S. soldiers and at a nearby police station.

Some families appeared to be setting the biscuits aside in their makeshift tents, reluctant to eat them if they can find other food.

Two vendors sell balls of fried batter at the entrance to the field-turned-camp at normal, pre-disaster prices. But Haitian staples such as rice and beans are nowhere to be seen.

But the WFP biscuits have won some fans.

Bolivar, the grandmother, said the biscuits were nutritious and her children love them.

"They're good, they're good!" she said, bursting with enthusiasm.

(Editing by James Kilner in Port-au-Prince)

February 06, 2010 01:09 AM

Inquiring minds are questioning the solvency of the Chinese banking system. Please consider China Defaulting Loans Soar, Insolvency Lawyer Says.

Non-performing loans in China have risen into the “trillions of renminbi” because of poor lending practices, an insolvency lawyer said.

“We work really closely with SASAC, the state-owned enterprise regulator in China, and there are literally trillions and trillions of renminbi of, frankly, defaulting loans already in China that no one is doing anything about,” Neil McDonald, a Hong Kong-based business restructuring and insolvency partner with Lovells LLP, said at an Asia-Pacific Loan Market Association conference yesterday. “At some point there’s going to be a reckoning for that.”

China’s government is tightening controls, including banks’ reserve ratios, to prevent record lending from fueling inflation. The Shanghai office of the China Banking Regulatory Commission warned yesterday that a 10 percent fall in property values would treble the number of delinquent loans in the city. Liu Mingkang, chairman of the CBRC, said Jan. 4 that loans were channeled into stock and property speculation last year, which China has been taking measures to stop. CBRC’s press officer is not immediately available for comment today.

Chinese banks issued a record 9.6 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) of new loans last year as part of a 4 trillion yuan stimulus package aimed at bolstering growth through the global financial crisis.

Should property prices fall 10 percent in Shanghai, China’s second-most-expensive property market, the ratio of delinquent mortgages would almost triple for the city’s banks to 1.18 percent, according to the Shanghai branch of the CBRC yesterday, citing a stress test based on Sept. 30 figures. A 30 percent decline would cause the ratio to jump almost fivefold, the agency said.

Fitch Ratings said Dec. 17 that Chinese banks’ capital strength is probably more “strained” than it appears as lenders use more off-balance sheet transactions to make room for loans.

I am amazed at the number of people sucked into the "China Story", about how undervalued the RMB is, and what amazing growth China has. The real story is China is a command economy, printing trillions of RMB, funding numerous apartment complexes, malls, and even entire cities where no one lives.

In centrally planned economies, when the government says lend, banks lend. Supposedly this is "growth". It isn't. One must not mistake Ponzi financing for growth.

The US, led by Hillary Clinton and president Obama, is putting enormous pressure on China to float the RMB, in expectation that it would rise and US exports would soar. I believe that if China floated the RMB on the Forex markets, it might crash.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post ListMike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 05, 2010 09:12 PM

Interview on FAIR's CounterSpin show

CounterSpin: Much of the latest reporting on Haiti disaster relief portrays the U.S. as doing its best under near-impossible circumstances, to bring food, water and medical aid to earthquake stricken Haitians. And indeed, many American efforts are giving aid and comfort to Haitians, but our guest, Mark Weisbrot, says the U.S. is in many ways hindering relief.

Mark Weisbrot is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Mark's latest piece, "Haiti Needs Water, Not Occupation," ran in London's Guardian newspaper, on January 20—he joins us now by phone from Washington D.C.

Welcome back to CounterSpin, Mark Weisbrot!

Mark Weisbrot: Thanks, Steve, it's always great to be here.

CS: Well, Americans including many U.S. journalists have been showing their compassion for Haitians in this latest hour of need, and you come along in this feel good moment—at least for the U.S.—saying the U.S. is in some way hurting the relief effort. Are you some kind of ghoul?

MW: No, I mean I'm not the only one. There were public complaints from Doctors Without Borders, from the French government, from Italian government officials, from a number of governments in South America that all said the same thing: that, and especially this was the worst during the first ten days or so, the U.S. military controlled the airport, and they had the overemphasis on security and so they're bringing—we don't know how many they've already brought in—but their goal was 20,000 troops and all the military equipment that goes with that. And at various points there were people, for example from the UN World Food Program, saying that most of the flights were being taken up by the U.S. military. Doctors Without Borders put out a press release—this was the Sunday following the earthquake—saying that they lost three days when they could have been saving people's lives, because their planes with 85 tons of medical supplies were rerouted through the Dominican Republic. So clearly this was mishandled in a big way and it did cost a lot of unnecessary suffering and death as well.

CS: So you're saying, just to be clear, that half of the airplanes coming into the Haitian Airport in Port-au-Prince were U.S. military planes for U.S. military purposes, not for aid purposes.

MW: That's right. You know, the U.S., I mean some of this is just kind of incompetence, some of it is a view of Haitians that, you know, one of the doctors from Partners in Health described as racist: that somehow the entire country is going to descend into complete chaos and people killing each other if they don't have U.S. troops occupying the country. So they had this idea that first you secure as much as you can, or maybe the whole country, who knows what they were trying to do. And then you establish supply chains and distribution centers, and then you get the stuff in the country. And really the most urgent need in the first few days is just to get the medical supplies and the water where they're needed, and if you lose some of it along the way, that's not so terrible. There was some looting, some food was lost through looting, but that's not really that big of a deal as compared to people not getting the lifesaving material.

CS: As you mentioned, security concerns go hand in hand with reports of rising crime and violence. A January 17 New York Times headline read "Officials Strain to Distribute Aid to Haiti as Violence Rises." We saw many similar reports of rampant violence, later debunked, in the aftermath of the Katrina disaster. What can you tell us about the stories of violence raging in Haiti that we're seeing now.

MW: Well, I don't know how much there is. You know it's very hard to tell. I mean you did have fairly early on General Keen from the Southern Command, who's in charge of the operation saying that there was less violence in Haiti since the earthquake than there was before, and the reports from Partners in Health and doctors on the ground were quite similar to that. So I'm sure there's some, but again, you know, it's not enough—it isn't anything drastically different from what was in Haiti before the earthquake, I don't see any evidence for that.

CS: Well, you raise concerns about—among Haitians and other concerned people—about the U.S. military occupying Haiti. We talked about some of those concerns and about the history that might suggest that those concerns are bona fide with Bill Fletcher a few weeks ago. But there's a related storyline that's coming out of Haiti, and that is that the disaster could be a blessing in disguise, and perhaps provide the opportunity for Haiti to remake itself. How does that view fit with the sort of "disaster capitalism" model? I mean, you wouldn't think Haiti could be rebuilt without poor people, but they've done it in New Orleans, haven't they?

MW: Well, I don't know what they're plans are going to be, I've seen some of course but you know, I think the main thing right now, obviously the most urgent thing, is to make sure that this obsession with security—and part of that, of course, is trying to make sure that people don't leave the country and end up here. And part of it is also political in the sense that the government is of questionable legitimacy, and they were supposed to have elections in February, which were rightfully postponed, but they weren't going to allow the largest political party to run in the election, and 15 other parties. So the United States is also concerned with political control any time there could be a rebellion, because so many of the people don't consider the government to be legitimate, and for valid reasons. They mostly boycotted—89 percent according to the official count—boycotted the last election in April because again they excluded the largest political party, which is of course the party of the overthrown elected president that the United States helped overthrow in 2004. So, you have these political matters too, I think, that are most important. But in terms of the reconstruction of the country. It really is related to the question of just even the most basic electoral democracy. In other words, are you going to reconstruct the country without a state, without a government? I mean almost no—a tiny, tiny percentage of any of the aid that's coming in now goes to the government. And there are reasons, of course, that NGOs want to distribute the aid, and there's obviously a lot of corruption in the government. But this has been a policy for a long time of the U.S. government to not help build a functioning state in Haiti. Their total government revenues are about 10 percent of GDP, that's 50 percent less than any number of countries in Africa that are way poorer than Haiti. So the U.S. program for decades now has been—besides having overthrown the government twice—their idea of reconstruction somehow doesn't involve government, and that's going to be a big problem because they're going to need a functioning government. They wouldn't have as many casualties right now if they had any kind of a functioning government.

CS: We've been speaking with Mark Weisbrot, co director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and author of the January 20 Guardian column, "Haiti Needs Water, Not Occupation."

Mark Weisbrot, thanks again for joining us today on CounterSpin!

MW: Sure, thank you.

February 05, 2010 08:41 PM

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has won reexamination of an illegitimate patent on voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) that could cripple the adoption of new VoIP technologies.

A company named Acceris Communications Technologies, now C2 Communications Technologies, was awarded the bogus patent for hardware, software, and processes for implementing VoIP using analog telephones as endpoints -- covering many telephone calls made over the Internet. EFF and the law firm Fenwick & West LLP filed a reexamination request showing that both a prior patent and published reference materials described the underlying technology long before Acceris made its claim. Today the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted EFF's reexamination request, ruling that there were substantial new questions of patentability.

"Our American patent system is meant to encourage invention and innovation," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "Undeserved patents instead serve to quash competition and hurt business and consumers."

"We are pleased that the USPTO agrees with the substantial new questions of patentability raised in EFF's request, and we look forward to the USPTO's ultimate decision on this patent," said Nikhil Iyengar of Fenwick &West.

The challenge to this patent is part of EFF's Patent Busting Project, which combats the chilling effects of bad patents on the public and consumer interests. So far eight patents targeted by EFF have been busted, invalidated, narrowed, or had a reexamination granted by the Patent Office.

For more on EFF's Patent Busting Project:
http://www.eff.org/patent/

Contacts:

Cindy Cohn
Legal Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
cindy@eff.org

Nikhil Iyengar
Fenwick & West LLP
niyengar@fenwick.com

February 05, 2010 08:29 PM

A prominent New York politician who served in the state assembly for three decades is the latest on a growing list of corrupt state lawmakers who in recent years have been convicted of crimes or forced to quit by allegations of wrongdoing.

Democrat Anthony Seminerio will go to jail for six years for operating a massive, decade-long bribery scheme in which he shook down individuals and organizations doing business with the state. The popular and highly influential legislator, who represented southwest Queens, took at least $1 million in exchange for actions he took as a public official.

The FBI has wiretaps of Seminerio, who regularly used profanity to accentuate his thug-like antics, referring to himself as a sort of mafia “godfather” and bluntly asking for a bribe from a health executive who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for his influence in the state legislature. A lot of the money was funneled through a “consulting” firm Seminerio created years ago.  

At his sentencing this week, a Manhattan federal judge chastised the disgraced politician, reminding him that he “decided to take a piece of the action.” The judge described in detail how the corrupt lawmaker “accepted bribes and engaged in extortion as part of a decade-long scheme to use his office—both literally and figuratively—for personal gain and at the expense of the public trust.”

Just few months ago another veteran New York politician, former senate majority leader Joseph Bruno, was convicted for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. The Republican legislator also abused his position as one of New York’s most powerful political leaders to make millions more in “consulting fees” that he failed to disclose. 

February 05, 2010 08:07 PM

As part of our Terms of (Ab)use project, we pay close attention to the fine print of online agreements for provisions that are potentially dangerous to consumers. We've noticed a troubling change in the way event planners restrict the rights of individuals who attend their shows. Where once these limitations had to fit on the back of a ticket, increasingly event organizers have moved their fine print online, where they are able to use even more contract law to avoid the limits of trademark and copyright law and actively control what ticket holders can say or do even after the event is over.

These burdensome terms can show up in some pretty unexpected places. Last year we noted how the Burning Man Organization (BMO) used online ticket terms to require participants to assign to BMO—in advance—the copyright to any pictures they took on the playa. Tickets for the 2010 event went on sale in mid-January, and we hoped the new terms would acknowledge the concerns we had expressed. Sadly, the new terms are just as onerous as before.

The "assignment in advance" clause is not the only burdensome provision. The BMO ticket terms limit participants' rights to use their own photos online, obliging them to take down any photos to which BMO objects for any reason and forbidding them from allowing anyone else to download or copy the photos. This means participants cannot donate their works to the public domain or to license their works, even through Creative Commons—no matter what is depicted or whether a use is noncommercial.

Even the notoriously protective Olympics allow spectators to take their own pictures or videos under their Ticket License Agreement, requiring only that the images "not be used for broadcast, publication, or any other commercial purpose." It is disappointing that the BMO cannot be at least as flexible.

Burning Man also continues to strip ticket holders of their right to make perfectly legal uses of its trademarks, forbidding participants from even using the (trademarked) term "Burning Man" on any website. In other words, participants who’d like to blog about their experiences at the event can’t use the words ”Burning Man.” Thus Burning Man uses contract law to do what it cannot under either copyright or trademark law—exert extraordinary control over participants' speech.

Why would BMO—the organizer of an “an annual experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance”—undermine speech and creativity like this? BMO claims that the terms in the Burning Man ticket agreement are necessary to protect Black Rock City’s unique culture and the privacy of its participants. Furthermore, BMO points out that the limitations are rarely enforced and they only claim copyright if the photos are used in a way BMO doesn't authorize. By claiming copyright in all photographs taken at the event, BMO can use the streamlined "notice and takedown" process enshrined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to quickly remove unapproved photos from the Internet.

But using online ticket terms for fast and easy takedown and to restrict CC-licensing and dedication to the public domain is a terrible precedent to set. As we pointed out in our post about this issue last year, doctors working with the tort reform group Medical Justice used contract law in the exact same way to censor negative reviews on Yelp and similar sites.

We understand the real challenges BMO faces in trying to preserve its noncommercial, community character. And we are aware that the current BMO enforces these terms only rarely. But a benevolent censor is still a censor—and BMO may not always be so benevolent. The bigger danger, though, is that other event organizers will take a page from the BMO/Medical Justice playbook, and assignment and abrogation of rights will become standard Terms of Ab(use) in all online contracts.

Copyright and trademark law were not intended to be used this way, and the collateral damage to speech and creativity inherent in the restrictions included in the Burning Man ticket agreement is too great. If the good folks at BMO continue to use ticket restrictions like this, Burning Man may very well become a new kind of model—not of temporary community and support for individual creative expression, but of permanent restriction on that very expression.

February 05, 2010 07:48 PM

I do not have a son, nor daughters. However, I did receive an email from "Clyde" who does.

Clyde Writes ...

Good day Mish

I had an interesting moment with my 14 year old son the other day. I had gone to the US Debt Clock website and was taking a minute to just watch the numbers roll up and down in the various amounts.

The site breaks down the debt into a per person amounts. It is quite depressing.

My 14 year old son walked by and I had him take a look at it all, explaining that someday my son, all this will be yours.

His first words were "Why the hell should I have to pay that back?"

I found that comment interesting in that he does have a point. It's not like the money that has been borrowed in the past has been used to create world class infrastructures or world class anything. The vast majority of all the money borrowed by the government decade after decade has been just thrown down every conceivable rathole.

Imagine if his entire generation comes to the same conclusion someday.

Thanks for all your great work, I appreciate reading your writings everyday.
Best, Clyde

Hello Clyde. You have a very bright son. His generation should not have to pay that debt back. Indeed, his generation cannot possibly pay that debt back even if they wanted to. Given enough time, his generation will be in charge and decide enough is enough and default on that debt.

However, I expect a crisis long before that. The result will be anything but inflation. What cannot be paid back, won't be paid back. What obligations cannot be paid, won't be paid. That process is deflation, not inflation. Changing attitudes are proof enough. We are in the grips of deflation now, led by pension promises that simply will not be met while millions look for jobs that do not exist.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post ListMike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 05, 2010 06:18 PM

In the continuing theater of BLS absurdities, the unemployment rate fell to 9.7% in spite of a 25th consecutive month of job losses. Some stopped counting at 22 months in November. However, I find November questionable.

This month professional services contributed 44,00 jobs to the plus side, but 52,000 of them were part-time jobs. Amazingly a table below shows the number of part-time workers decreased by 849,000 from last month. Go figure.

Moreover, the so-called 64,000 rise in November can be attributed to the seasonally adjusted hiring of 94,000 temporary workers. Here is a look at revisions ....

BLS Revisions



Household Revisions

The above table does not affect the unemployment rate. Revisions to the Household Survey do. Here are the household revisions.



Bingo. Just like that the population shrank as did the civilian labor force.

For some reason the BLS does this in pieces. The following chart shows the result.



There are now a whopping 2.5 million people without a job but want one, yet are not counted as unemployed.

So yes, the "official unemployment rate" can hold its own or even drop with this kind of nonsense.

Now for a closer look at the report ....

This morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the January 2010 Employment Report.

The unemployment rate fell from 10.0 to 9.7 percent in January, and nonfarm payroll employment was essentially unchanged (-20,000), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment fell in construction and in transportation and warehousing, while temporary help services and retail trade added jobs..




Establishment Data



click on chart for sharper image

Highlights

• 20,000 jobs were lost in total vs. 150,000 jobs last month.
• 75,000 construction jobs were lost vs. 32,000 last month.
• 11,000 manufacturing jobs were added vs. 23,000 lost last month.
• 48,000 service providing jobs were added vs. 69,000 lost last month.
• 42,000 retail trade jobs were added vs. 18,000 lost last month.
• 44,000 professional and business services jobs were added vs. 20,000 last month.
• 16,000 education and health services jobs were added vs. 26,000 last month.
• 14,000 leisure and hospitality jobs were lost vs. 41,000 last month.
• 8,000 government jobs were lost vs. 27,000 last month.
• 52,000 temporary help jobs were added vs 58,000 last month and a whopping 94,000 in November.
  

Look at that last line again.

November added 94,000 temporary jobs seasonally adjusted. Even if true it is hardly anything to crow about but it does explain the positive job growth in November.

A total of 60,000 goods producing jobs were lost (higher paying jobs). Professional services contributed 44,00 jobs to the plus side, but 52,000 of them were part-time jobs! Amazingly a table below shows the number of part-time workers decreased by 849,000 from last month.

Note: some of the above categories overlap as shown in the preceding chart, so do not attempt to total them up.

Index of Aggregate Weekly Hours

Work hours were up one tick to 33.3. Short work weeks contribute to household problems. Moreover, before hiring begins at many places, work weeks will increase.

Birth Death Model Revisions 2009



click on chart for sharper image

Birth Death Model Revisions 2009



click on chart for sharper image

Birth/Death Model Revisions

There are so many revisions and the BLS Birth/Death Model methodology so screwed up it is pointless to further comment other than to repeat a few general statements.

Please note that one cannot subtract or add birth death revisions to the reported totals and get a meaningful answer. One set of numbers is seasonally adjusted the other is not. In the black box the BLS combines the two coming out with a total. The Birth Death numbers influence the overall totals but the math is not as simple as it appears and the effect is nowhere near as big as it might logically appear at first glance.

BLS Black Box

For those unfamiliar with the birth/death model, monthly jobs adjustments are made by the BLS based on economic assumptions about the birth and death of businesses (not individuals). Those assumptions are made according to estimates of where the BLS thinks we are in the economic cycle.

The BLS has admitted however, that their model will be wrong at economic turning points. And there is no doubt we are long past an economic turning point.

Here is the pertinent snip from the BLS on Birth/Death Methodology.

• The net birth/death model component figures are unique to each month and exhibit a seasonal pattern that can result in negative adjustments in some months. These models do not attempt to correct for any other potential error sources in the CES estimates such as sampling error or design limitations.
• Note that the net birth/death figures are not seasonally adjusted, and are applied to not seasonally adjusted monthly employment links to determine the final estimate.
• The most significant potential drawback to this or any model-based approach is that time series modeling assumes a predictable continuation of historical patterns and relationships and therefore is likely to have some difficulty producing reliable estimates at economic turning points or during periods when there are sudden changes in trend.

Household Data

In January, the number of unemployed persons decreased to 14.8 million, and the unemployment rate fell by 0.3 percentage point to 9.7 percent.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) continued to trend up in January, reaching 6.3 million. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of longterm unemployed has risen by 5.0 million.

In January, the civilian labor force participation rate was little changed at 64.7 percent. The employment-population ratio rose from 58.2 to 58.4 percent.

The number of persons who worked part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) fell from 9.2 to 8.3 million in January. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

Persons Not in the Labor Force

About 2.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in January, an increase of 409,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

Among the marginally attached, there were 1.1 million discouraged workers in January, up from 734,000 a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.5 million people marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

Table A-8 Part Time Status

Note: many table numbers have changed. Last month and for as long as I remember, this used to be Table A-5.



click on chart for sharper image

The chart shows there are 8.3 million people are working part time but want a full time job. A year ago the number was 8.8 million. More importantly, last month it was 9.2 million. Specifically, 849,000 part-time workers now have full-time status (or lost their job altogether).

In general a decreasing number of part-time workers is a good thing. It remains to be seen if this is an outlier or the start of a trend.

Regardless, there are still millions of workers whose hours will rise before companies start hiring more workers.

Table A-15

Table A-15 is where one can find a better approximation of what the unemployment rate really is. Note: many table numbers have changed. Last month and for as long as I remember, this used to be Table A-12.



click on chart for sharper image

Grim Statistics

The official unemployment rate is 9.7%. However, if you start counting all the people that want a job but gave up, all the people with part-time jobs that want a full-time job, all the people who dropped off the unemployment rolls because their unemployment benefits ran out, etc., you get a closer picture of what the unemployment rate is. That number is in the last row labeled U-6.

It reflects how unemployment feels to the average Joe on the street. U-6 is 16.5%. Both U-6 and U-3 (the so called "official" unemployment number) are poised to rise further although most likely at a slower pace than earlier this year.

Looking ahead, there is no driver for jobs and states in forced cutback mode are making matters far worse.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post ListMike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 05, 2010 04:55 PM

Nearly a decade after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, large amounts of dirty foreign cash—often used to support terrorism—keep flowing into the country thanks to major loopholes in a 2001 law passed to curtail money laundering.

Corrupt foreign officials and their relatives regularly exploit the gaps in the largely ineffective post-9/11 measure to funnel millions of dollars into the United States, according to a Senate Homeland Security panel investigation. The committee issued an alarming 330-page report this week detailing how illicit foreign money regularly enters the U.S.

The laundered funds are in turn used to train and provide support for terrorists and terrorism, according to the Michigan Democrat (Carl Levin) who heads the bipartisan panel called the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The tainted money has also been used in bribery schemes involving corrupt U.S. politicians. 

Wealthy crooked foreigners and government officials use lawyers, real estate and escrow agents, lobbyists, bankers and even college administrators to skirt the money laundering law and bring tens of millions of dollars into the U.S. Examples include the son of the president of Equatorial Guinea, who brought in $110 million in suspect money over a four-year span, according to the investigation.

An Angolan arms dealer, who is currently in a French prison, for years maintained dozens of U.S. bank accounts handling some $60 million in transactions. The notoriously corrupt president of a poverty-stricken west central African country (Gabon) used an American lobbyist to move nearly $20 million and to purchase U.S.-made armored vehicles and Saudi military cargo aircrafts. 

At least one of the cases listed in the detailed senate report involves a criminally convicted U.S. congressman from Louisiana, William Jefferson, who is serving a 13-year sentence for operating a massive bribery scheme. Among the disgraced politician’s operatives was Nigeria’s vice president, who smuggled more than $40 million of “suspect funds” into the U.S. 

February 05, 2010 03:49 PM

Some new reports from the Congressional Research Service that have not previously been made available to the public include the following (all pdf).

“Social Networking and Constituent Communications: Member Use of Twitter During a Two-Month Period in the 111th Congress,” February 3, 2010.

“Metropolitan Transportation Planning,” February 3, 2010.

“Veterans Health Care: Project HERO Implementation,” February 3, 2010.

February 05, 2010 03:16 PM

Several noteworthy new hearing volumes on national security policy have recently appeared (all pdf).  In most cases, the published volumes include valuable new supplementary material for the record.

“Examining the State Secrets Privilege: Protecting National Security While Preserving Accountability,” Senate Judiciary Committee, February 13, 2008 (published December 2009) (large pdf).

“Coercive Interrogation Techniques: Do They Work, Are They Reliable, and What Did the FBI Know About Them?”, Senate Judiciary Committee, June 10, 2008 (published December 2009) (large pdf).

“Protecting National Security and Civil Liberties: Strategies for Terrorism Information Sharing,” Senate Judiciary Committee, April 21, 2009 (published January 2010).

“Chinese Interrogation vs. Congressional Oversight: The Uighurs at Guantanamo,” House Foreign Affairs Committee, July 16, 2009 (published December 2009).

February 05, 2010 03:12 PM

Websites and blogs dealing with military issues in Taiwan were surveyed in a recent report from the DNI Open Source Center that has not been publicly released.  See “Taiwan: Unofficial Military Websites” (pdf), Open Source Center Media Aid, January 12, 2010.

February 05, 2010 03:10 PM

I want to help Judicial Watch fight corruption by making a tax-deductible contribution of:

February 05, 2010 01:55 PM

T H E M O N E Y C H A N G E R

Vol.1, No.6, December, 1987
Information deadline December 1, 1987

------------------------------------------------------------------------
F.Sanders,S.P.,MONEYCHANGER*5705 Stage Rd., Suite 164*Memphis,TN.38134
------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE FOURTH WORLD WILDERNESS CONFERENCE:

Beware the bankers bearing gifts

An interview with Mr. George Hunt



Mr. George Hunt has been an accountant for small businesses, corpo-
rations, and partnerships for the past 18 years, specializing
in physicians and dentists. He works also with general businesses,
doing consulting, accounting, and tax work as well as
investment counselling. He kindly made time for this interview
on November 18, 1987.

MONEYCHANGER - What was the Fourth World Wilderness Congress
that took place September 11th through September 18th?

HUNT - It was billed as a world-wide meeting to address global
environmental concerns. As far as the public was concerned, it was
produced by a chap named Ian Player, a wealthy, wealthy in-
dustrialist of (I believe) English descent. I'm sure he'd be in
Who's Who and so on. As I found out it was not really produced
by him, but by the moneychangers in London and Europe.

MONEYCHANGER - That is a far-reaching charge. What basis do you
have for that?

HUNT - Well, the London banker Baron Edmund de Rothschild
was at the meeting for 6 days. Edmund de Rothschild was personally
conducting the monetary matters and creation of this World
Conservation Bank (WCB), in the company of I. Michael Sweatman
of the Royal Bank of Canada. Those 2 were like Siamese twins,
and that's why I say that it appears they were running at least
the money side of this conference, and I would say the conference
was primarily to get money. Also, David Rockefeller was there, and gave a speech on Sunday.

MONEYCHANGER - How many people were there?

HUNT - There were 1500 from 60 countries sign up at the first
meetings in Denver. That was first 3 days before it went up
into the mountains, where the shirtsleeve work was done.

MONEYCHANGER - Into the mountains where?

HUNT - We went up to Estes Park, Colorado from Monday through
Friday, after the meetings the preceding Friday through Sunday
afternoon at Currigan Hall in Denver. Rockefeller spoke that
Sunday and there were keynote addresses about how great
this whole idea was. Then we adjourned to the YMCA camp facility
in Estes Park for another 5 days of meetings.

MONEYCHANGER - What whole idea?

HUNT - Oh, conservation, ecology, the world has a chance, we're
going to beat the ozone deterioration, we're going to get
the rain forests back together again. The thing that really
set me off was Baker's talk.

MONEYCHANGER - Was he there?

HUNT - Oh yeah, he was there. He gave the keynote address.
He said that conservation requires "growth and development".
There was a HUM around the audience, because they knew that "growth
and development" are antagonistic to conservation.

MONEYCHANGER - Wait now. There are some code words passing here,
aren't there? When Baker says something like that, he's talking
in code about something else.

HUNT - Exactly. He's talking in code about the *formula*,
the "equation" of conservation and growth and development,
that is, assets equals liabilities plus net worth. There were
a lot of these *double intendres*.

MONEYCHANGER - How did you get in to these meetings?

HUNT - I was watching public television one night before the
congress. A week earlier my 21 year old son had said to me, Dad,
you know I'd like to go up to the Arctic and repair the rangers'
huts up there. They need repair and I could do it, and I'd
like to be up there alone. So I filed that away. Then as I was
watching public television they announced that the Fourth World
Wilderness Congress as coming to Denver Sept. 11th. They
showed pictures of reindeer and all that kind of stuff. I said,
Gee, that would be great, I bet I could rub elbows with the Smokies
(the U.S. Forest Service) there, which I did by the way. There
were 90 smokies there.

So I got on the phone, and because I'm a businessman and have
a sales background, too, I was able to wangle myself in, free
of charge. There was a F$650 charge for attending.

MONEYCHANGER - Wait a minute. You're telling me that all these
GREENIES who live out in the woods on berries and nuts came
up with F$650 plus travel to Denver?

HUNT - A good question. I think a lot of those Greenies were
sponsored to be there. It was a contrived conference. So I called
around and it turned out that the FINDHORN GROUP in Loveland,
CO, were the official hosts. They call themselves "The Emissaries."

MONEYCHANGER - Aren't they an occultist New Age group?

HUNT - Heavy New Age, but they were in charge of the host functions
at the Congress, and I finally wound up being interviewed
by them. I told them I was a Christian, I was transparent with
everybody. Turns out that a Christian within their group -- you
know, New Age includes Christians, too, they're just off on
a little tangent maybe -- interviewed me and I was passed
with flying colors as a good guy to meet and greet these attendees.
My job was to act as a host to the dignitaries, coming in from
various parts of the world. I loved my work, because I love people,
and I did a good job for these folks.

When my work was through, I sat in on all of the meetings that
were of a business nature. Baker got up and spouted his "conserva-
tion requires growth and development" line, and a lot of other
things. I've got a copy of his speech, and it sounded good if you
just listened to the words, but it was cloaked with a lot of
innuendos. I said to myself, this is a SCAM. Here's the 1st
speaker, and immediately I was alerted, because I know the history
of these people.

MONEYCHANGER - "These people" means bankers and money people,
or New Agers, or who?

HUNT - Bankers and money people. I've delved into conspiracy.
I don't know where you're coming from on this, but I checked
it out and researched it for 5 years and I am *convinced* there
is a conspiracy.

MONEYCHANGER - Well, at the very least some kind of Insider network
that arranges things to their own benefit.

HUNT - James Baker is the Edward Mandell House of
the U.S. Treasury Department. So I wrote an open letter
of rebuttal to distribute at the meeting the next day. I printed
700 letters. Thank God I didn't distribute them. The thing
that caused me not to distribute it, besides fear, was compassion.
When I saw Rothschild and Rockefeller sitting up in front before
Rockefeller's talk, I thought, Would you want someone to do
that to you, George, distribute a rebuttal that makes you
look silly, when you're a national figure?

As it turns out my distributing that wouldn't have any
impact *at all* on that audience because they were either ig-
norant or bought. But I went back to the pressroom after Rockefel-
ler's speech, and presented it to him -- to his bodyguard really,
his bodyguard up between me and David. He did read it, because
the next da I received a warning from Rockefeller's office
that I'd better stop politicking or I'd regret it. Which
was good for me, since it made me shut my mouth and open my
ears. I was warned by the Findhorn Group, and I complied. It
was good that I was obedient to my superiors, because
I was allowed to stay at the congress and hear a lot of interest-
ing things.

After the talks for the public and the newspapers were finished
on Sunda afternoon, we went up to the shirtsleeves sessions in
Estes Park. I had lunch with Michael Sweatman and Mr. and Mrs.
Rothschild, and I was able to ask them how this bank was going
to continue to operate***

MONEYCHANGER - By "this bank" you mean the WCB?

HUNT - Yes. I didn't see any earnings engine inside it. Where
are the earnings coming from, if all you have in it are these
wilderness lands, reindeer hides, and so on? I didn't say exactly
that, but***

MONEYCHANGER - Reindeer hides don't pay much of a dividend.

HUNT - No. They're planning on re-financing, debt swapping one trillion dollars of Third World debt into this
new World Conservation Bank. I told a high official of the
Brazilian finance ministry, Dr. Jose Pedro de Oliveira-Costa,
I don't see how this bank is going to survive. Is this really
going to benefit Brazil?

He sad, last night I could not sleep all night long. There is no
benefit that anybody's going to get from this bank. If they
give us a refinance, in the short run, yes, we will benefit.
We will get soft currency from them, we'll be able to get our
economy going again, but in the long term, he said, we won't
be able to pay those loans back. We've devalued as far as we
possibly can in our country, we're at the brink of poverty.

MONEYCHANGER - Well, how did Sweatman answer the question of
where the earnings would come from?

HUNT - He said, "We're working on that."

MONEYCHANGER - . "We're working on that"??

HUNT - "We're working on that." He's an evasive guy. In fact,
he's already lied to Senator Tim Wirth .

MONEYCHANGER - How will this World Conservation Bank scheme
work exactly?

HUNT - The WCB will be enacted by the United Nations, and will
need to be approved, I wuld think, by every country participating.
Let's assume that our senators and representatives allow
this thing to happen. Then the Bank will be endowed with 30%
of the earth's land surface.

MONEYCHANGER - Now WHO is going to do that? Governments around
the world will give title to their wilderness lands to th WCB?

HUNT - Will give title to the lands to the World Wilderness
Land Inventory Trust. It will be en-trusted. Sounds good, huh?
We know about trusts.

Then this Trust will go floating into the WCB by the unanimous
decree of the world's people, saying, God Bless you for
saving our reindeer. That kind of a mentality is where they're
coming from. Those people at the congress were ignorant. They
don't suspect anything. They're VERY naive. Not stupid, ignorant.

MONEYCHANGER - Which people do you mean?

HUNT - I'm talking about the conservationists. Conservationists
and ecologists comprised about 60% of the people there. About
30% were government, United Nations and other bureaucrats. The other
10% were world banking heavyweights who were there with axes
to grind and pencils to sharpen.

So the bank is endowed with an asset, an asset worth how many
trillions? I don't know. Their accountants are going to evaluate
this 50 million sqaure kilometer hunk of wilderness lands. then the
WCB will have the power to act as a world central bank. It can
create soft currencies, not hard currencies, at this point. Soft
currencies are used, as you probably know, for some purpose WITHIN
a country. But what I picked up on is that the soft currencies
can be spent outside of a country for environmental and ecological
equipment. Well, hello, International Harvester, Mack Truck,
etc., they're going to bring those soft currencies into the
US and we're going to have inflation.

MONEYCHANGER - That will be an international currency, in other
words. You're calling it a soft currency, but in effect it'll
be an international currency.

HUNT - It's not an international currency in the sense
of a one world currency because it's not a hard currency,
it's not legal tender for all international transactions, yet.
Now you know and I know that by currency and debt-for-equity
swaps they're going to wheel and deal it from soft into hard
somehow. These guys are smart.

MONEYCHANGER - Let me see if I understand. A World Conservation
Bank will be set up and into a trust will be vested title
to 30% of the world's land surface, 12 1/2 *billion* acres. Against
this the WCB will issue loans to various countries to buy,
what did you say, environmental***

HUNT - No, no, no, they could issue loans, but I'm talking
specifically about currencies. They can create currencies
for in-country use.

MONEYCHANGER - Well, that's issuing loans. It's the same thing.
They will loan money for certain spceified purposes to these
countries. Now am I to assume that say, for example, Brazil,
puts up the Amazon Basin, and they get credited a certain amount?
Then there's a certain amount of loans they can draw down
against that "deposit", so to speak?

HUNT - How it will work I'm not sure. They didn't get into technique,
they went into policies and enactments and resolutions. BUT,
there could be a gradual loan swap for Brazil, taking them out
of their old loans and putting them into a new WCB loan,
which will then sweeten the loan on the Chase Manhattan's balance
sheet, and will take it out of non-accrual and put it back into
the healthy loan column once again.

MONEYCHANGER - or else pay it off.

HUNT - Or they could pay it off, right. They could call it any
shot that they wanted to. They could pay them off lickety-split.

MONEYCHANGER - But what's really happened is that the Brazilians
will have given up title to millions of acres of land and in
exchange the Chase Manhattan will get its loan to Brazil
paid off by the WCB.

HUNT - You got it.

MONEYCHANGE - I got it.



HUNT - I believe that World Bank loans, as they stand now, are
not collateralized. Now they're entering into a new era of loan
collateralization. They're saying, Okay, the next step is that
we ant collateral, so that when we loan-swap this debt, and we're
going to own the Amazon if you default. Remember, as the Brazilian
Oliveira-Costa sad, they're not going to be able to pay that off.
That's why he couldn't sleep that night, because he *knew*
that they were going to loose the Amazon .

MONEYCHANGER - These are debt for equity swaps, which they've
been talking about for several years. They're going to make
their bad loans good by collateralizing them after the fact
with all of this land, and somebody, somebody, SOMEBODY is going
to end up with title to *twelve and a half billion acres*.
Is that right?

HUNT - That's right. The collateral behind whatever loans are
in the WCB at the time, if the WCB goes belly up. There's a whole
see-saw of things that are going to happen. They have multi-,
multi-trillions of dollars upon which they can create currencies
and loans, and they're going to begin to barter and counter-
trade and loan-swap against the United States.

MONEYCHANGER - Have you ever heard the name John Law?

HUNT - No.

MONEYCHANGER - Are you familiar with the French hyperinflation
during the French Revolution, 1792 - 1798?

HUNT - Oh, yeah, when they issued assignats!

MONEYCHANGER - Do you know what the assignats were? The assignats
were the ASSIGNMENTS of a mortgage on what were called the "na-
tional domains", and those were confiscated (mostly church) lands
and properties. In other words, it was a scheme to *monetize*
land. Now, what you have just described to me as the World
Conservation Bank is a scheme to monetize land.

HUNT - Very good, sir. You are right. Now I reeber John Law.
Didn't he convince the French in the 1720s to monetize land
in the Mississippi Bubble?

MONEYCHANGER - No, but he had come up with a land monetization
scheme and presented it to the Scottish parliament in about 1694,
and he was literally laughed out of the country for it.
But this is the same crooked scheme, and moreover it will
function was a world central bank, and out of that world
central bank there will grow a one-world flat currency system
at the same time. This scheme is like a box of Cracker Jacks:
it's just loaded with prizes and nuts.

How will this project be put into effect? Will it be installed
under the auspices of the United Nations?

HUNT - I think so. There was a United Nations World Commission
on Environment and Development created in 1982 that published
what's called the Brundtland Report, actually entitled
OUR COMMON FUTURE

Gro Harlem Brundtland is the prime minister
of Norway. She is the mother of four, 49 years old, and she
was at the conference. The UN said, Brundtland, Go for it! Find out
the conditions in our world. She came back with her study
and said, The conditions are *terrible*. The UN then said,
What do you recommend? And she said, I recommend a conservation
bank, dot dot dot***

Her report set the stage for unlimited enactments to take over
ecology, environmental and pollution laws throughout the world.
This includes international dictation to the US about its "smoke-
stack" industries.

So not only do we have a Bank forming as a result of the Brundtland
Report, but we also have a proposal for very harsh, quasi-spiritual
ecological laws for "Mother Earth". You're going to have a "Mother
Earth Comes First" mentality arising throughout the world
as a result of this legislation.

MONEYCHANGER - One is tempted to say a *Mother Earth cult*.

HUNT - It is already turning into a Mother Earth cult.
The Brundtland Report is the precipitating event for putting
the entire scheme into effect. Brundtland was there at the
conference on Thursday, and I saw her receive the enactments
and resolutions that they had created. I do not have a copy
of them. They went underground. Senator Wirth's office
has been looking for them. He's the only senator that has yet had
any kind of an interest in this. I kind of wonder if he's just
prying for the benefit of those others, because Timmy's been
a representative or senator since 1972, so you know he's been
pretty well processed by the one-world people. Yesterday Tim
Mahoney from Tim Wirth's office called me and said, I talked
to Michael Sweatman and Michael Sweatman sad they weren't
really there at that conference to create a World Conservation
Bank.

I said, "What??" Mahoney said, They were just there to see what
could possibly be done in that area. I said, Hey, take a look
at that copy of Baker's speech that I sent you. He told us on
the first day in his keynote address that the purpose of this
congress is to create a World Conservation Bank. You know, con-
gressmen and senators are looking for an excuse NOT to pry.
This is a hot item, they don't want to touch it.

MONEYCHANGER - How fast are they moving? When will they try to
put this WCB into action?

HUNT - As soon as they can, because as Rockefeller said in his
speech, "the good news is that collapse f the monetary system
that was predicted by some regarding each of the major borrowing
countries has been resolved 'temporarily' by extending the debt."

"Temporarily" -- that means he wants some *permanent* solutions.
"They bad news is that lower petroleum prices in 1986
caused countries to renegotiate the schedule for debt repay-
ment again. The borrowing countries are in better shape because
interest cost of servicing the nearly F$400 billion in Latin
American debt is still enormous. One-third of Latin America's
Export earnings are devoted to paying interest on this debt,
according to the Institute for International Economics in Washington.
Two-thirds of the nearly F$400 billion in debt is owed to a number
of commercial banks, including Chase Manhattan. Most are paying
only interest payments, not principal, and while economic conditions
have improved the countries still face political and structural
problems that could hamper repayment."

As you will recall I talked to Oliveira-Costa, a Brazilian finance
ministry official, and he said, There is no way that we could
pay off that debt. So the bottom line says, We're going to have
a financial collapse in our country if they DON'T get the WCB.

MONEYCHANGER - Then there's not much time. But you don't have
any idea what the actual time framework is.

HUNT - I tried to extract that. I had dinner with James MacNeill,
the Secretary General, UN Commission on Environment and Development
in Geneva. That's the commission that Gro Harlem Brundtland
headed up which will present its report to the UN in which
all of these resolutions will be contained. Nobody's been able
to find out where it is. I think they're going to pull a little
Federal Reserve trick on us, you know, present it sometime
like midnight on December 25th, when nobody's watching.

At the congress I said to Michael Sweatman, There is no earnings
engine in the balance sheet of this bank that I can see, and you're
taking in wilderness properties and trillions of dollars
in bad debts. Where are the earnings going to come from to keep
this bank afloat? He answered, We're working on that; you'll
have a chance to express your concerns and your questions in a
half and hour at our caucus.

I said Sure, you're going to call on me. This thing seems to be
contrived from the beginning to the end, frankly. He said,
No, I'll call on you. I sad, "You promise?" He said, "I promise."

He did not call on me. There was NO pro and con offered at
the caucus, it was just Baron de Rothschild spouting non-entities.
He said, Innovation is the key to the pollution problem. We need
growth and development. For instance, we have a CO2 problem.
I propose that we create large dry ice machines that will absorb
the CO2 from the atmosphere, and then take the dry ice
that we create and take it up to the polar ice cap to keep it from
melting.

MONEYCHANGER - Oh, come off it.

HUNT - I am NOT kidding. I said to myself, That guy has either
lost his mind, or***

MONEYCHANGER - (uncontrollable laughter and howling)

HUNT - ***or he is just *laughing* at us. Isn't that something?
And by the way, I've got the whole conference on tape.

At the end of the caucus, Baron Rothschild, "You have decided.
This will be a second World Marshall Plan." And I said to myself,
"Did we say *that*? Nobody said anything here." When I got home
I realized the significance of what he had said. That will be a
resolution, because he wrote it on a resolution sheet, I saw
him do it. That means that the governments are going to guarantee
the debt of thw WCB. Now Russia was a lot of the wilderness
lands, and I see that Russia is going to get a lot of the
loans. When they default, and the US is going to be the turkey
again.

MONEYCHANGER - But still, in the end, SOMEBODY is going to end
up with title to those lands, and I suggest that these somebodies
are these same moneyed interests that were so much in evidence
at this Fourth World Wilderness Conference.

HUNT - Exactly, and they're going to be in back of the bank loaning
currency and cash flow to the WCB to keep it alive, to give it
the *appearance* of profitability. The bank will be running
on an accrual basis. On paper it will be recognizing profits
received on interests, but the interests will NOT be coming in
because these countries cannot pay. So my hypothesis is that
the kings, capitalists, and moneychangers of the world will be
in the back of this bank in the position of *creditors*.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

For part 2 of this file, see OWGART1.003
--- Mike Carrillo
.
.
Source: http://www.textfiles.com/conspiracy/owgart1.003
.
The Money Changer / December 1987 TextFiles.com/

George Hunt's Video on UN UNCED Earth Summit 1992

">http://

VIDEO ABoVE:http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6642758020554799808#
.

February 05, 2010 09:56 AM

When I mention Illuminati, I mean that loosely knit cabal begun by the Jesuit Weishaupt..You probably wonder who the shadowy underworld government will target next?
.
Well, in my opinion it's the Empire of Nippon or as we call it in English, Japan.
Recently it was revealed that Japan Airlines (JAL), the state airway was experiencing financial difficulties. It was hinted that it might have to "partner" with a foreign airline carrier to be able to "survive"..For the last two weeks Toyota, the world's largest motor vehicle manufacturer has been plagued by accelerator sticking problems. This is truly a sticky situation that won't go away!.
The gas pedal problem was originally blamed on the floor mat, then a gadget was invented (arriving at dealerships on or about Thurday, 2/4/10) that would correct the anomally.

“The problem of sudden unintended acceleration has been reported to have
existed in some Lexus vehicles and Toyota vehicles going back to 1999 when CTS did not even make this product for any customer,” the manufacturer said in a statement last week.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0203/Toyota-recall-Are-sticky-gas-pedals-the-real-culprit

After Toyota announced a gigantic recall for 8 models that may have potentially hazardous mechanical problems; Now it has escalated to a probable electro-magnetic issue with the throttle. In the U.S. there are even Congressional hearings into the auto manufacturer's handling of the current issue. It seems as if this recall may not only cost Toyota huge sums of money; but also, its prosperity and reputation. .
.Who's next on the chopping block for bankruptcies and global destitution? .
.Chop, Chop, Chop. .........Job, jobs, jobs!.
.Pretty soon they'll be able to establish their don't buy or sell list...
.

February 05, 2010 09:48 AM

A "Nobel Torsion Message" Over Norway?

Part III

By Richard C. Hoagland
© 2010 The Enterprise Mission

In the extended pre-dawn darkeness over Norway last December, as we have recounted in Parts I and II of this Report ... "something" truly amazing happened--
.
And reaction immediately divided into two totally opposing views: Those who "bought" the official media story ... that "it was only another failed Russian missile test ..."--
.
And then ... those who thought "it just might be something else this time ...."
.
As we have shown previously, there can be little doubt at this point that a Russian rocket was involved.
.
But--
.
The conclusion that everyone has jumped to -- with the striking exception of the Russians themselves -- that, somehow, the Russians caused The Spiral--
.
Well, that's a "leap too far" ....
.
We can now report, based on analysis of the extensive imaging evidence reported via the Norwegian press, that The Norway Spiral was NOT primarily caused by "a failed Russian missile test ...."
.
But--
.
The failed Russian rocket could, in fact, have been caused by whatever forces "created the Norway Spiral ...."
.
This section of our on-going analysis will describe precisely "how."


* * *

Read the whole article @ http://www.enterprisemission.com/Norway-Message3.htm
.

February 05, 2010 09:46 AM

The Secret History of Europe · February 01, 2010
Dear Friends, Welcome to Keep the Faith Ministry again. Thank you for joining us as we watch the unfolding events leading us to the fulfillment of prophecy. We are living in amazing times. If you are paying attention to unfolding prophecy in current events, you are no doubt watching with fascination, as I am, to the amazing developments in our day that tell us that Jesus is coming soon.

I hope you are carefully watching the transformation of Europe into a superstate, or federation of states controlled by a centralized government. The Vatican wants this because it is key to resurrecting the Holy Roman Empire. It is a sort of “United States of Europe” that the Vatican wants to dominate politically and religiously. You have heard about the European Union for a long time probably. But up until now it has been a loosely connected association of nation states. The EU institutions in Brussels had only limited power. That is going to change now. The centralized government and constitution of the European Union officially began on December 1, 2009 when the Lisbon Treaty, essentially a constitution for the new Europe, came into force. Establishing a constitution for Europe’s superstate was a tortured process, consuming eight years and numerous concessions. The Lisbon Treaty was the most recent attempt to get that constitution in place. Most recently it involved two referendums in Ireland which blocked the treaty at first, then passed it. But Rome finally got her way.

The transformation of Europe is not merely creating a political union; far from it. In reality, there is something more subtle, more ominous and more sinister happening behind the scenes than most of us have recognized. Today I’m going to tell you the secret history of Europe. I’m going to tell you the hidden agenda of those that have orchestrated the rise of the European superstate. I’m going to tell you what they are planning for the future that most people cannot comprehend. The latest movements in Europe tell us of the fulfillment of prophecy. You cannot understand them, unless you understand Bible prophecy. So get ready. As I researched for today’s message, I was shocked at how persistent and determined Europe’s hidden leaders are to achieve their secret goals. You will be shocked too. It’s all in plain sight, but it is shrouded in nice sounding language, and lofty platitudes.

But before we begin, I want to say thank you for your prayers and support for Keep the Faith Ministry throughout 2009. As 2010 is over a month old already, I want to say how much we need your prayers this year. Great sweeping movements are taking place, and we need discernment, wisdom and understanding. I also want to thank you in advance for your support as we dig deep into history, prophecy and the modern world. Jesus is coming very soon, and we must prepare. The forces of evil are stirring… preparing for the last great crisis. They are working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, and are building up to the final war with Christ, once again in the person of His saints on earth. This final conflict is over the law of God. Jesus proposes to have a people who will live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. They will not adhere to the traditions of men. They will live by God’s whole law in spite of enormous pressure from friends, family, churches, governments and societies. I pray that you are preparing to be part of that number who will represent Christ in all His glory in your character, even in the midst of great darkness and the final deception of the whole world.

I didn’t want to do a sermon on Europe quite so soon after the last one, but events there have been moving so rapidly and compellingly, that I must keep you informed. I believe that much is going to happen in 2010 in Europe and it should be very interesting to watch in light of prophecy. What you are going to hear today, is perhaps more interesting than anything you have heard before concerning Rome’s intentions for Europe. By the way, all of the documentation you may want is posted throughout the text of this sermon on our website.

But first turn with me in your Bibles to the 13th chapter of Revelation. We need to see how what we are going to study today fits into end-time prophecy. We have studied this verse many times before. We have noticed that around the world there is a resurgence of papal popularity. We see that Rome’s agenda is to regain control, not only of Europe, but of the entire world, and she is working steadily, patiently, and stealthily to accomplish it. Listen to these verses beginning with verse one. The Apostle and Prophet John says: “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.”

Also, notice verse eight which says, that “all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him.” This is referring to the one-world religion that Rome is trying to restore, not just over Europe, but over the whole world.

The amazing thing about this beast, my friends, is that his deadly wound was healed. A beast in Bible prophecy is a world power. But this beast is a composite beast of many previous world powers. The various parts of this beast come from the same animals listed in Daniel 7 which represent four successive kingdoms. Revelation 13:2 is a summary description of the beast that comes up out of the sea. It has qualities of all the nations that preceded it. But this beast is different. He gains power and influence and is followed by billions of people who yield to his power and influence.

This beast has power from the dragon, or Satan, we are informed, and this power leads the people to worship Satan the dragon, by worshiping the beast. Notice verse four. “And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?”

In other words, the whole world wonders after the beast and worships it. There is no world-wide power or nation state that involves worship of the power or nation state itself, other than the Holy See, or the Roman Catholic Church. And in so doing, the whole world worships the dragon or the devil. And no one can make war with the Vatican. The nation states of the world may make war between themselves, but they cannot make war with the Vatican. Only Jesus can make war with the papacy and win. Everyone else that does loses…

Most people can’t see this because they don’t have a clear understanding of prophecy, nor of history. They have been educated in the ecumenical movement. They have not become students of scripture and they don’t know how to study it. Moreover, most people are just so busy that they don’t have time to diligently search the scriptures for themselves to discern the voice of God. They just believe what they are told, and if they don’t really believe it, they nevertheless do what they are told because it comes from a respected religious authority. As a result current events go right over their heads. This is true of many Christian people including their leaders in high positions. What is happening in Europe and other parts of the world doesn’t seem to interest them. They are in a spiritual stupor. They will never be able to see until it is too late, what Rome is planning for them.

Now let me read to you a passage from the book Great Controversy, page 565-566. It shows the aims of Rome in becoming the ruler of the world. “But Romanism as a system is no more in harmony with the gospel of Christ now than at any former period in her history. The Protestant churches are in great darkness, or they would discern the signs of the times. The Roman Church is far-reaching in her plans and modes of operation. She is employing every device to extend her influence and increase her power in preparation for a fierce and determined conflict to regain control of the world, to re-establish persecution, and to undo all that Protestantism has done. Catholicism is gaining ground upon every side…” Now, put that together with the following statement from the same book, page, 616. “Romanism in the Old World, and apostate Protestantism in the New, will pursue a similar course toward those who honor all the divine precepts.”

The old world referred to is Europe. When Europe allows Rome to control her, we will see very dramatic movements in the rest of the world too. The United States plays an important part in helping Rome gain control of the world. And right now the U.S. administration is working hard to help Rome make large and important gains toward peace with Muslims. But that is for another study. Today I want to show you what has just happened in Europe.

Notice Revelation 18:7. This is talking about the punishment of Babylon the Great, which is another representation of the Papacy. But I want you to notice the last phrase, which gives the reason why she is going to be punished. “For she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.”

In order for these prophecies to be fulfilled, the Holy See, which is the official legal name of the nation state of the Vatican, has to become much more powerful. This she cannot do on a global scale unless she first regains control of Europe. This was her former estate, her patrimony which was wrested from her by Napoleon and his generals in 1798, more than 200 years ago. I think it is interesting that though Napoleon and his general Berthier were atheists, they were actually doing God’s will.

Today the Catholic Church has over a billion adherents to her faith scattered in every nation of the globe, which lays the foundation for her to rise to geopolitical and geo-religious dominance. When she finally regains control of Europe, she will have much more power, standing, and credibility with the other nation states of the world, which will help her extend her power everywhere.

As of December 1, 2009, the European Union became a legal superstate, or a federation of states comprised of 27 nations. It has been in its progressive formative stages since 1957 when the leaders of the European nations signed the Treaty of Rome. This treaty was originally a trade treaty, though secretly these very leaders were working hard to build a politically united Europe under the Holy See. The vast majority of leaders that signed the Treaty of Rome were Roman Catholic. Over time the European Union has gradually transformed itself into a political union. Eventually it will remodel itself again as a religious union, and at that time the resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire will be complete. We are well on the way to the third version of the union as you will see today.

Let me read to you another passage from Great Controversy, page 581. “God’s word has given warning of the impending danger; let this be unheeded, and the Protestant world will learn what the purposes of Rome really are, only when it is too late to escape the snare.” Remember that the protestant world includes Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, England and all of Scandinavia. Though the protestant world involves the United States and the other commonwealth countries of the old British Empire around the world, I am going to focus on Europe today because of the importance of Europe to end time prophecy. I’ll continue readying “[Rome] is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative halls, in the churches, and in the hearts of men. She is piling up her lofty and massive structures in the secret recesses of which her former persecutions will be repeated. Stealthily and unsuspectedly she is strengthening her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come for her to strike. All that she desires is vantage ground, and this is already being given her. We shall soon see and shall feel what the purpose of the Roman element is. Whoever shall believe and obey the word of God will thereby incur reproach and persecution.”

If this prophecy isn’t being fulfilled today, I don’t know what is! Everywhere you turn the Holy See is gaining political power, popularity and prestige. But more importantly, she is gaining influence in governments and legislative bodies.

The Lisbon Treaty signed by Europe’s leaders in Lisbon, Portugal December 13, 2007, had been in the process of ratification for 23 months. When the last of the 27 nations of Europe finally ratified the Lisbon Treaty in November of 2009, Europe officially became a federation of states with a centralized government in Brussels. The last nation to reluctantly ratify the treaty and deposit the articles of ratification in Rome was the Czech Republic, the home of the great reformer John Hus. Note that the articles of ratification of the Lisbon Treaty from each of the nations are lodged and kept by the Italian government in Rome. It was the Italian government in cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church that hosted the summit that resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957, the foundational treaty of a united Europe. Now the treaty documents of the Lisbon Treaty are kept in Rome too, right under the watchful eye of the Vatican.

Lisbon Treaty

Ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon

Most people have no idea that the instigation of the Treaty of Rome and the European Union comes from the Roman Catholic Church. It is very important for you to understand this from a historical perspective. Otherwise you will not really understand what is going on in Europe and how that relates to Revelation 13, 17, & 18.

America Magazine, a Jesuit publication in the United States made this very interesting statement to confirm this point on its blog of November 21, 2009. Speaking of Europe’s new President, Herman Van Rompuy, (pronounced ROM-pow), the magazine said, “He is, in short, a bearer of the torch first lit by the Catholic architects of European unity — De Gasperi, Schuman, [and] Adenauer — who, like Van Rompuy, were all Christian Democrats for whom faith and Europe went together.” Notice that the Jesuit America magazine said it was their Catholic faith that led the founding fathers of the European Union to initiate the process of European integration. Their vision of a united Europe is really about resurrecting the old Holy Roman Empire. Please note that the Jesuits just revealed the secret history of the European Union. But let me tell you a little about these three men.

American Magazine Article

New York Times Article

Alcide De Gasperi was the founder of the Italian Christian Democratic Party, which is the Roman Catholic party. De Gasperi was one of the key planners in the early formation of what became known as the European Community, which later became known as the European Union. He helped organize the Council of Europe, over which Herman Van Rompuy is now President. He also supported the Schumann Plan, which in 1951 led to the foundation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) which was actually the starting point in the process of European integration, six years before the Treaty of Rome. De Gasperi is considered to be one of the Founding fathers of the European Union. He was named president of the European Parliament in 1954 just before his death.
Alcide De Gasperi was so appreciated by the Vatican that he was given the Karlspreis, or in English, the Charlemagne Award in 1952. This award is given by the German city of Aachen to key people who contributed to the “European idea and European peace.” These terms are code for European integration. It almost goes without saying, that these men believed that European peace can only come when Europe is united under Roman Catholic principles. That, by the way, is exactly the way the Vatican views it too.

Before we go on, I need to explain to you the significance of the Karlspries or the Charlemagne award. The importance of Charlemagne to the Roman Catholic Church cannot be underestimated. While Justinian laid the foundation for the Holy Roman Empire by his decrees in 532, and 533, and by defeating the Ostrogoths in 538, Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, was the dictator, king of the Franks from 768-814 AD, that united Europe under the religion of the Roman Catholic Church, which led to great bloodshed of those who were faithful to the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. His predecessor Clovis I, was the first Roman Catholic king in Europe. He defeated the Visigoths in 508, which began the 1290 year period of prophecy of the Book of Daniel.

Aachen was the favorite residence of Charlemagne, and for a time, it was the political center of Europe. It was the place of coronation of medieval kings, particularly German kings who were the strongest leaders of the Holy Roman Empire. The sponsors of the Karlspreis, the City of Aachen, “refer to Charlemagne as the ‘Founder of Western Culture,’ meaning Roman Catholic culture, and assert that under his reign, the City of Aachen was once the spiritual and political centre of the whole of what is now western Europe.” As you can see, this city has deep and rich Roman Catholic symbolism to Europe. Without Charlemagne, Rome would not have had the strength that it had from the 9th century onward.

The first Karlspreis was given to the founder of the Pan European Movement, a precursor to the European Union, in 1950. And since then the city of Aachen has given it to people all through Europe who have promoted the “unity of Europe.” It has also given the Karlspreis to some outside Europe who were especially helpful in this project. To give someone this most prestigious Charlemagne award suggests that they strongly sympathize with the idea of a Europe once again under the power of the Vatican, or have worked very hard toward its realization. Recent Karlspreis recipients include Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, 2008, Pope John Paul II, 2004, Bill Clinton in 2000, and even the euro in 2002. Giving the award to the Euro, reveals how important a centralized economy is to Rome. Remember that control of people and nations necessarily involves control of their economies. By extension, control of the world, would therefore involve control of the global economy.

To be associated with Charlemagne through the award, clearly expresses the intent of De Gasperi and the other founding fathers of the European Union to resurrect the old Holy Roman Empire.

Charlemagne

Aachen

Karlspreis

To show Papal appreciation, De Gasperi was not buried in his home town of Trentino, Italy, but in a Catholic basilica in Rome. Rome was so grateful to De Gasperi, that they want to make him a saint. The process for his beatification was opened in 1993.

De Gasperi

President of the European Parliment

Robert Schuman, a Frenchman, and not the famous German composer, was another founder of the European Union. He was one of the founders of the Council of Europe and NATO. Schuman did his secondary studies in Luxemburg at a former Jesuit school, then studied at a number of universities in Germany.

Schuman, a Roman Catholic, became Prime Minister of France, and during the last days of his first administration, his government proposed plans that later resulted in the Council of Europe and the European Community single market. He also announced a coming supranational union for Europe.

Schuman famously said, “The European spirit signifies being conscious of belonging to a cultural family and to have a willingness to serve that community in the spirit of total mutuality, without any hidden motives of hegemony or the selfish exploitation of others… Our century, that has witnessed the catastrophes resulting in the unending clash of nationalities and nationalisms, must attempt and succeed in reconciling nations in a supranational association.”

In other words, Europe would eventually become a superstate where all citizens, societies and the nations themselves would unite in a cultural family and mutually seek the benefit of the whole of Europe. The term “cultural family” includes, of course the Roman Catholic religion. The purest form of that idea is virtually impossible. But the supranational state has now emerged.

Schuman worked hard to lay the foundation for the European Union. He spoke about it continually in Europe and North America. In September of 1948 he announced France’s intention to work toward a democratic organization for all of Europe.

Robert Schuman was also given the Karlspreis by the city of Aachen to commemorate his efforts to unify Europe under a resurrected Holy Roman Empire. The Holy See was so pleased with Schuman that they made him a knight of the Order of Pope Pius IX, and after his death opened a beatification process for him too.

Robert Schuman

The third key founding father of the European Union was Konrad Adenauer of Germany. A Roman Catholic, and member of the mostly Roman Catholic Christian Democratic Union, Adenauer became the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, or West Germany in 1949, and arguably the most powerful influence on Germany after World War II. Adenauer also became the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in 1950. Because of his influence and his four term West German chancellorship, he was at the forefront of the planning that led to the Treaty of Rome and the European Union. He was instrumental in developing the German “social market economy” which is essentially capitalism mixed with some elements of social welfare and Catholic social teaching. Because of Adenauer’s policies, the foundation was laid to reunite both East and West German states, which has been a vital element for the revived Holy Roman Empire under Catholic leadership.

In 1954, Adenauer also received the Karlspreis, the award given to those who work diligently for European integration under Roman Catholic principles, to which Adenauer was unconditionally committed. Adenauer’s vision, or life calling, was to work diligently to restore the old Holy Roman Empire.

Konrad Adenauer

There were other important men who laid the foundation for a re-united Europe, but these three were certainly the main Catholic players in the process. But the important thing to remember is that their vision for Europe was a Roman Catholic vision.

Let us now go back to that article from the Jesuit magazine America and learn about Herman Van Rompuy, Europe’s new president. “One interesting thing about Mr Van Rompuy is his Catholicism, about which he makes no bones,” wrote America magazine. “He was educated… by Jesuits in Brussels, went on to the Catholic University of Leuven [Belgium], and in the 1980s wrote a book about Christendom as a modern idea. He is, in short, a bearer of the torch first lit by the Catholic architects of European unity — De Gasperi, Schuman, Adenauer — who, like Van Rompuy, were all Christian Democrats for whom faith and Europe went together.”

Let’s see if we can say this in other words. Herman Van Rompuy, 62, a Belgian Christian Democrat, is a strong Roman Catholic with a Jesuit education and a Catholic vision for Europe. Because of his Jesuit training, he has a strong European identity, believes whole-heartedly in European integration, and is certainly very committed to a united Europe in the Roman Catholic tradition, as opposed to secular tradition. He even wrote a book about Christendom, which literally means the kingdom of Christ on earth as an idea that should be adopted by modern societies, in particular Europe.

European President News

Belgian Anti-Hero Set for European Stardom

To resurrect the Holy Roman Empire, Rome needs a committed Roman Catholic with a Roman Catholic vision for Europe. This they have in the man who is Europe’s new president, as suggested by the article in America magazine.

Herman Van Rompuy, prime minister of Belgium, was relatively unknown outside of his home country until he was appointed to be the president of the European council. He is a quiet man that works for consensus and knows how to diffuse political confrontations. He is very pragmatic and “effective in behind-the-scenes negotiation,” and should not be underestimated, reported the Pittsburg Post-Gazette. He is also friendly to the U.S. and is a steadfast devotee of NATO.

Euro News Article

Post Gazette Article

Mr. Van Rompuy’s formation under the Jesuits in Brussels at the Jesuit Sint-Jan Berchmans College, which was a high school, should not be overlooked. He speaks very warmly of them. He then earned his law degree and his masters in economics at Catholic University Leuven, the oldest, still operating Catholic University in Europe. As a Catholic he “has often gone on religious retreats in the Abbey of Affligem (Flemish Brabant) to renew his faith and meditate.” Perhaps he also gets good council there concerning how to work in Rome’s interest within Europe.

Herman Van Rompuy

Reuters News Article

Kuleuven Article

Mr. Van Rompuy’s ideas about Europe are actually quite familiar, particularly if you have been listening to what the Vatican has been saying for over half a century since the signing of the Treaty of Rome. Furthermore, as a member of the Christian People’s Party in Belgium, or the Christian Democrats, Rompuy would have ideas about the future of Europe similar to the Vatican.

Christene Volkspartij

For instance, Mr, Van Rompuy, along with Angelia Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, and Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, is against the nation of Turkey joining the EU. Some suggest that he sees Europe as a “Christian club with no room for Turkey with its mainly Muslim population.” His view of the matter is actually quite similar to the view of Pope Benedict XVI. Both of them believe that “Turkey’s Islamic character would dilute the Christian character of the EU,” said the Jesuit America magazine. Here is what Van Rompuy said in 2004… “An enlargement [of the EU] with Turkey is not in any way comparable with previous enlargement waves. Turkey is not Europe and will never be Europe.” He continued “But it’s a matter of fact that the universal values which are in force in Europe, and which are also the fundamental values of Christianity [meaning Catholic values], will lose vigour with the entry of a large Islamic country such as Turkey.” Bringing Turkey into the EU would open the EU to a much greater flood of Muslims than it already has. This would be inconsistent with the Roman Catholic understanding of Europe as a Christian empire. And speaking of Mr. Van Rompuy’s understanding of society; America magazine said he has a “sophisticated grasp of Catholic social doctrine.”

Source

Herman Van Rompuy Biography

So if anyone can lead the EU into a resurrected Holy Roman Empire, it would be Van Rompuy. He is aligned with the Vatican and is prepared to work diligently in their interests to resurrect the Holy Roman Empire. He has the leadership skills and has the philosophy and vision that will make Europe what the Vatican wants it to be. Moreover, he is a seasoned politician. One political colleague commented: “He knows what he’s doing. That’s why he’s been opening his mouth only to breathe.”

Mr. Van Rompuy took an “avid interest in the drafting of the European Constitution, which has now been replaced by the Lisbon Treaty. ‘He saw it as the great adventure of the 20th century,’ says one [of his political colleagues]. ‘He wants to see Europe grown and expand beyond its borders.”

NCR News Article

Concerning his philosophy of Europe and society in general, Mr. Van Rompuy wrote: “According to [Catholic] social doctrine, the political community is at the service of the civil society from which it is born… The state should make sure that the legal framework allows the social actors (societies, associations, organizations, and so on) to carry out their activities in total freedom… in order that the interaction between freedom of association and the democratic way leads in the direction of the common good.”

In other words, the state is subject to the society that forms it. If that society is a Roman Catholic society, then the government should give the church and its leaders freedom to work for the “common good,” within the society. This includes the laws of the land, the economy, the justice system, the social infrastructure, and the religious life of that society. In other words, what Van Rompuy is really saying in practical terms is that the Holy See should control all these aspects of European society. The government is responsible to work on behalf of Roman Catholic social principles. All of these areas involve political exchange. Rome is saying that she wants to be in the center of that political exchange. This idea of the government and the church working for the common good is code for Catholic dominance of the EU. Rome knows that if she gets the EU to consent to this social framework, she will be the master of all of Europe.

If the EU eventually legally recognizes the Roman Catholic faith as the faith of the whole union, the Holy See will demand that she guide those nation states in the direction of the “common good” as defined by herself. This is the goal of the Papacy and it is the goal of the current leadership of the EU. This would certainly include Sunday laws. Already Rome has tried to get the EU to upgrade the Sunday laws of Europe in 2008 and 2009. And in late 2009, she successfully defended Sunday closing laws in Germany before the German high court. No doubt she will keep at it, particularly now that the EU is led by one of her strong supporters. With Van Rompuy, Rome has a man in position to move this process forward with speed if circumstances are right.

The Parliament News Source

Spiegel Source

Christian Telegraph Article

Source

Moreover Van Rompuy, a trained economist, and a former Belgian central banker, wants to raise taxes to fund the new centralized EU government in Brussels. “Within days of taking office in January, the former Belgian prime minister will put his weight behind controversial proposals already floated by the commission’s head, José Manuel Barroso, for a new ‘Euro tax,’” wrote the UK Telegraph. “Mr Van Rompuy… set out his [plans] on direct Euro-taxes during a private speech at a recent meeting of the Bilderberg group of top politicians, bankers and businessmen. The group officially meets in secret,” said the Telegraph, “but when selected details of [Van Rompuy’s] remarks leaked out, his office was forced to issue a public statement on his behalf.

“The financing of the welfare state, irrespective of the social reform we implement, will require new resources,’ he said. ‘The possibility of financial levies at European level needs to be seriously reviewed…’

Now let us put two and two together. The European Union is a Roman Catholic project. The EU will likely tax the people to support Europe, or more precisely, the Roman Catholic Church in its takeover of Europe. Revelation 18 tells us repeatedly that the merchants of the earth, of which Van Rompuy is one, are in financial league with the Vatican. These powerful merchants work with this spiritual and political superpower to make themselves rich while making Rome powerful. Roman Catholic Van Rompuy, an economist and financier is one of those merchants of the earth who will have a lot of say in the economy of Europe. He is already in league with Rome to support Rome’s agenda in Europe by taxing the people to fund the Catholic inspired superstate that will eventually secure Europe again for the papacy. Little do the citizens of Europe realize it.

By the way, Van Rompuy, in his acceptance speech, said he would maintain “absolute discretion” with the media.” What does that mean? It means that he will not tell everything he is doing to the press. Much of his activities will probably be kept secret. That is why it is important to understand prophecy, because prophecy reveals what the goals of these collaborators really are.

Telegraph News Article

Diplomats converse about EU President

General Articles:

Source 1

Source 2

Source 3

Let us remember the prophetic goals of the Vatican concerning the future. Rome is working for a universal religion, universal worship and eventually a universal Sunday law. We read this in Revelation 13:8 which says, “all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

If the Vatican is ever going to achieve that level of power, there first has to be globalized politics and a globalized economy. These two pillars of Rome’s achievement are essentially in place and rapidly gaining power and synergy. Rooted in the UN, the global political machine has been operating with increasing power since its creation in the years shortly after World War II. In more recent times, the economic crisis has given the “kings of the earth,” and the “merchants of the earth” the excuse to centralize the management of the economy away from the dominance of the U.S. dollar, and U.S. geo-politics, and into the hands of globalised institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank, and other internationalist organizations. This is all playing right into the hands of Rome’s prophetic destiny. Once these are in place, and once matured, Rome will have the opportunity, perhaps precipitated by another type of crisis, to establish a world religion.

Rome has her own basket of issues to sort out before she can become the mistress of the world. They include legal independence from Italy with her own laws, namely canon law, judicial oversight of the laws of Europe and other nations like the U.S., mature ecumenical relationships with Islam, as well as control of her European estate. Remember, Rome is seeking global dominance, not merely European dominance. In recent years we have seen how the Vatican has masterfully manipulated the United States. We have also seen how the Pope has mastered international politics and particularly Islamic relations. Let us remember that steadily and stealthily, persistently Rome is working toward her goal of global control and a global religion.

Mr. Van Rompuy is a globalist politician and is very dedicated to global rule. One of the Members of the European Parliament openly spoke about Van Rompuy’s dedication to globalism on November 11, 2009. “Is it possible” said Mario Borghezio, of Italy, “that no one has noticed that all 3 (EU Presidential candidates)” one of which was Rompuy, “frequently attend Bilderberg or Trilateral meetings?” Apparently Borghezio isn’t happy with the influence of these secret organizations on the European Union. Some people think, my friends, that these organizations are fictional, or that they have little influence. But at least one member of the European Parliament is concerned that they have way too much influence.

Borghezio Speech

Van Rompuy regularly attends the secret Bilderberg and Trilateral Commission meetings. The next day, November 12, he actually attended a secret Bilderberg dinner to promote his candidacy for president of the EU. It was there that he made a speech about his tax proposals. “Mr Van Rompuy attended the Bilderberg dinner…” wrote the UK Telegraph, “at the invitation of the Vicomte Davignon, a former European Commission vice-president and a leading EU federalist. The setting was the highly symbolic Castle of the Valley of the Duchess, or Chateau de Val-Duchesse, where the EU’s founding Treaty of Rome was negotiated in 1957 and later the venue for the first ever European Commission meeting. Among the diners was Henry Kissinger, the former US State Secretary and Nobel Prize winner who started the debate that led to the creation of an EU President after he famously asked: “Who do I call if I want to call Europe?”

Telegraph News Article

You should know who the Vicomte is. The Vicomte, or Viscount is the head of a titled noble family and is one of the most elite of all. Étienne, Viscount Davignon is president of the Bilderberg steering committee and chairman of the Bilderberg Conference. He is an honorary Minister of State of Belgium and on the Crown Council. Davignon is very connected internationally on committees, institutes, businesses and social organizations. The Viscount oversaw the process of adoption of the euro. He is the elite of the elites. He is a Roman Catholic as are almost all Belgian nobility. He was one of the founders of the original institutions of the European Union way back when there were only six member countries working together toward European integration. This man’s relationship to the EU goes all the way to the very beginning.

Davignon

Belgian Nobility

Davignon Viscount

More on Davignon

European Communities

Also, in case you didn’t know it, Henry Kissinger, a Jew, is a well known globalist and papal consultant on international affairs. He has been a strong advocate of a federalized Europe and has even been awarded the Karlspreis in 1987.

See this NC Register Artcile
or
Global Research Article

Herman Van Rompuy’s Catholic vision for global governance came through in his acceptance speech as President of the EU Council. It was very revealing in light of Rome’s universal ambitions. “2009 is also the first year of global governance,” he said, “with the establishment of the G20 in the middle of the financial crisis. The climate conference in Copenhagen is another step towards the global management of our planet,” he said.

“YouTube Video Source:“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwE_cLjJYns

The Vatican is thankful for Van Rompuy. Even if the global international organizations and systems aren’t mature yet, he will certainly help develop them. Even though they aren’t yet truly global, their formation is well under way, and they are starting to function.

Friends, what we can see by all of this is the masterful but mostly hidden hand of Rome. Listen to this statement from the book Great Controversy, page 235. It describes how the Jesuits worked to control whole societies. “Under various disguises the Jesuits worked their way into offices of state, climbing up to be the counselors of kings, and shaping the policy of nations.” Is it possible that the Jesuit order is doing it again in modern times? Is it possible that the Jesuits have worked their way into offices of state and have become the counselors of rulers, shaping the policy of nations.

I’ll read another sentence from the same paragraph. Look what happens when the Jesuits influence the policies of nations. “The Jesuits rapidly spread themselves over Europe, and wherever they went, there followed a revival of popery…” Remember, my friends, the purpose of the Vatican is to develop the power to implement one-world religion. This will certainly happen again as Rome moves rapidly toward reaching her goal.

The European project is so important to the Jesuits that they have even set up an office specifically to work with the leaders of the European Union to help them resurrect the Holy Roman Empire. It is called the Jesuit European Office. Let me read to you some of the information posted on their website. The Jesuit European Office serves politicians through “relationship and dialogue, as well as advocacy about issues.” This nice sounding statement no doubt covers a multitude of activity by the Jesuits in high places.

The Jesuit European Office has a couple of key priorities, one of which is “the continued development of a ‘European consciousness.’ In other words, they are working to get the people of the individual nations of Europe to see themselves as Europeans rather than Germans, Italians, French, etc. This is important in order that the people will not resist the resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire.

I’ll continue reading. “The growth and development of the European project, and the search for its adequate spiritual, moral, political and legal foundations, calls [the Jesuit European Office] to share in the discussion and exploration of the fundamental vision behind the European construction.”

This is talking about the construction of the new Holy Roman Empire. In other words, this is telling us that the Jesuits are determined to be at the center of the discussion and planning for the future of Europe.

Reading on: “The [Jesuit European Office] with offices in different parts of Europe – will pay special attention to candidate countries and neighbors of the EU. This work is done with Catholic and ecumenical partners, where possible in a context of inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue.”

So, through the ecumenical connections, the Jesuits are using the other churches and religions to help Rome regain control of Europe, including new countries working toward entry into the EU. The Jesuits want to be involved with candidates for EU membership right from the very start of the process.

The Jesuit European Office has methods by which it proceeds. They include; “Personal contacts and relationships with officials and decision-makers at all levels, helping them to integrate their professional tasks with the ideals of justice and peace; and stimulating those who are Christian to grow in the faith that does justice; assisting people to a deeper sense of what it could mean to ‘belong to Europe’, [and] where appropriate, enriching these contacts with Ignatian practices helpful for their personal and professional lives, and sharing with them the gift of discernment.”

In other words, the Jesuits work with officials and decision-makers, which are the leaders of government, lawmakers, bankers, economists, etc., to work toward Roman Catholic principles of justice and peace (which can include every area of life and society), and working with Catholics in office to practice their faith by acting or voting in harmony with Catholic social teaching. Moreover it is the Jesuit mission to weave Ignatian spirituality into the lives and thinking of the leaders of government wherever possible.

Furthermore, the website says that the Jesuit European Office is involved in “Networking with those, in the Ignatian [or Jesuit] family and beyond, who can enhance or challenge the perspective of the European institutions, or who can give authentic voice to those in need. [The European Jesuits aim] to bring together decision makers, experts, and people working in the field.”

In other words, the Jesuit European Office is involved in helping to open doors of opportunity for politicians who work with Rome through networking, and close doors for those who don’t. Their mission includes challenging anything in the government of Europe that is not in harmony with Rome’s agenda. The Jesuits are very good at networking, and putting their own people in high office. Van Rompuy is probably one of those people. Of course there are other candidates. There has to be some sort of choice. But in the end, the ones promoted to positions of huge responsibility have to be people who will promote the goals of Rome. No doubt the Jesuits worked very hard behind the scenes to get their man in position as Euro-President.

Source

Friends, the secret hand in Europe’s history is now clearly revealed. The hidden agenda is now open to see. The Vatican is working behind the scenes to place herself on the throne of the world, to be its queen and its mistress. It is not always easy to document the Vatican’s interaction in geopolitics, but today you have seen the obvious connections that reveal Rome’s ambitions and intentions, placed in their prophetic context.

It is a sober time to be alive. I hope you are taking note of this, and are preparing your family for the crisis that is coming upon God’s people in the last days. You cannot go along with the required worship in the coming one-world religion. If you do, you will forfeit your eternal life. The coming crisis over worship is really a crisis over loyalty to the law of God. May God’s grace be upon you. Love Jesus with all your heart. Seek Him daily for your spiritual strength. Make sure you have His Holy Spirit in control of your life at all times.
.
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Source:http://www.ktfministry.org/sermons/617/the-secret-history-of-europe
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February 05, 2010 09:40 AM

Notice:
Until further notice I will only post on Endr Times sporadically. Yesterday, my computer broke down; So, until I can repair it, I'll post every few days. Besides that everything is fine. Thank God for all His blessings.

Arsenio,
Maranatha..

February 05, 2010 09:27 AM

PIGS= Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain.
The above mentioned countries (part of the European Union) are experiencing difficulties in their respective economies; Also, they are collectively dragging down the European Union. So much for the Euro!
BY THE WAY -The United States Dollar gained value compared to the Euro.
On another note:
What do the PIGS have in common besides the EU?
Answer: They are mostly Roman Catholic nations, except for Greece which is Orthodox. The Greek Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church are very similar; The main differences are that the Catholics have the Pope and the Greek Orthodox have their Patriarch. Also, the Greek Orthodox use Icons (pictures of saints), and the Roman Catholics use Statues in their churches.

The word Catholic is derived from the Greek adjective καθολικός
(katholikos), meaning "universal". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic.

I wonder if there is any credence to the Protestant work ethic concept when you compare the Reformation nations with Catholic or Orthodox countries?.What do you think? .I think the facts speak for themselves!

Arsenio.

February 05, 2010 09:17 AM

Blame it on Bush

February 05, 2010 09:12 AM

6Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?

7Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

8He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

9The LORD's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.

10Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

11Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?

12For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

13Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins.

14Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee; and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver; and that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword.

15Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine.


Micah 6:6-15.
.

February 05, 2010 08:02 AM

Last week the LA Times reported the California teachers pension fund is $43 billion short.

Another pension alarm bell is ringing in Sacramento, this time at the teachers retirement system, where the nation's second-largest public pension fund is reporting a $43-billion shortfall.

The California State Teachers' Retirement System said that as of June 30, 2009, it could meet only an estimated 77% of its future pension obligations -- far less than the 100% recommended by actuaries.

Known as CalSTRS, the fund took a big hit during the 2008-09 fiscal year, losing a quarter of its value. Since then, its investment returns have improved, but the growth isn't strong enough to keep up with a widening funding gap.

What's worse, CalSTRS Chief Executive Jack Ehnes said in a report to be presented to the board Feb. 5, the fund could be broke in 35 years -- the length of a typical teaching career.

To avoid that calamity, Ehnes wants the state Legislature to raise employer pension contributions paid by the state and, indirectly, California's 1,043 school districts in the next few years.

Rolling The Dice With Commodities

Given there is virtually no chance the legislature will pony up $43 billion, CalSTRS considers rolling the dice on commodities. Hell why not? Taxpayers are on the hook if it does not work out.

Please consider California Teachers’ Pension Fund Mulls Commodity Investment.

The California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the second-biggest U.S. public pension, is considering investments in commodities to boost returns and provide a hedge against inflation and slumping equities.

The governing board of the fund, with $134 billion under management, is scheduled to hear today a staff report in Sacramento that recommends its first-ever commodity investment. The board will decide whether to seek additional research on strategies and portfolio weightings.

“Commodities historically exhibited low correlation to equities and bonds and produced double-digit returns when equities fell,” Innovation and Risk Director Steven Tong and Investment Officer Carrie Lo said in a report to the board. “In effect, commodities may act as an insurance policy, realizing low single-digit returns over the long run but generating large double-digit payoffs in the event of a negative shock.”

Commodity prices have surged since 2001 as global economic growth led by China, the fastest-growing consumer of raw materials, spurred demand for metals, energy and grains. Copper prices have quadrupled in the past eight years, and crude oil has more than doubled. Higher prices have attracted increased interest from hedge-fund managers and pension funds.

Investors poured about $60 billion into commodities through index-tracking and exchange-traded funds and medium-term notes last year, and should add at least that much in 2010, according to a December survey of 250 investors by Barclays Capital.

Kiss Of Death?

Pension plans are looking to hop on the commodity bandwagon now after copper prices have quadrupled in the past eight years, and crude oil has more than doubled.

Is that a good thing?

Commodity prices have surged since 2001 as global economic growth led by China, the fastest-growing consumer of raw materials, spurred demand for metals, energy and grains. Higher prices have attracted increased interest from hedge-fund managers and pension funds.

Is that a good thing?

$WTIC - Light Crude



click on chart for sharper image

China is on the verge of imploding (or blowing up attempting to prevent a implosion) yet pension plans and other misguided souls are plowing into China and commodities. These are contrarian indicators.

RBA Sees Growth

If you want another contrarian indicator, look no further than Australian central bank sees 3.25%-3.5% growth ahead.

In its quarterly monetary policy statement, the RBA said its "central forecast is for the economy to grow at around 3.25%-3.5% in both 2010 and 2011."

The RBA said housing construction has turned around and "is also now providing a boost to domestic demand," and that "stronger employment data have helped lift consumer confidence which, together with a recovery in household wealth, has supported consumer spending, despite the fading of the effects of the earlier cash payments to households."

Housing Construction Turned Around?!

Which way? Australia housing is on the verge of a massive plunge and the RBA surprised 20 out of 20 economists by holding rates steady. The governors are spooked and they come out and make nonsensical statements like that. I am in awe.

Please see Pool of Greater Housing Fools in Australia Finally Runs Out; OZ Dollar, Where to From Here? for what's really going on in Australia.

The following video on China is quite good, but it is very long.

Chanos Sees `Overheating and Overindulgence' in China



I side with Chanos.

Yet, I am also a believer in peak oil and commodities for the long haul. However, for the short-to-intermediate term I am sticking with my target for the price of crude to fall back to $55.

There is no fundamental basis for crude oil to go higher now, and there certainly is no good reason to be in love with China either. Bear in mind, just because there is no good fundamental reason for something to happen, does not mean it won't.

Inquiring minds may wish to consider Tech Tickers: Bank Lending, Jobs, 2010 Forecast.

2010 Forecast - The Great Retrace



That segment with Aaron Task is from Tech Tickers Mish: Expect Harder Times in 2010

From President Obama on down, Americans are hoping Friday's stronger-than-expected November jobs report marked the beginning of the end of our national unemployment nightmare. Looking beyond the November jobs data, Shedlock says the odds of the unemployment rate coming down anytime soon are remote.

As confident as he is about the grim outlook for jobs, Shedlock was very reticent to make market predictions in the accompanying video, taped Friday evening at Minyanville's annual Holiday Festivus in New York City.

In a subsequent email, Shedlock was more willing to take a position, as is more typical of the opinionated blogger:

"In the absence of a war outbreak in the Middle East or Pakistan -- and/or Congress going completely insane with more stimulus efforts -- I think oil prices are likely to drop, the dollar will strengthen or at least hold its own, and the best opportunities are likely to be on the short side," he writes. "2010 is highly likely to retrace most if not all of the ‘reflation' efforts of 2009. If things play out as I suspect, 2010 will be the year of the great retrace as the economic recovery disappoints."

The reflation trade looks more than over-cooked in equities, commodities, junk bonds, corporate bonds, and foreign equities. Indeed, the reflation trade looks well done and burnt to a crisp.

The prudent thing to do is to step aside, waiting for better opportunities down the road, a theme I have been harping on for months.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post ListMike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 05, 2010 07:48 AM

My "California Banker" friend writes:

Hey Mish

Check out the compensation levels for public employees of BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit authority. It’s the light rail servicing the greater San Francisco Bay Area. As overpaid compensation levels go for municipal employees, BART might close to the top of the list.

"CB"

As suggested, I did a quick perusal of BART Salaries.

click on charts for sharper image



40 pages deep I found this



Why So Little?

The above images show two station agents making approximately $85,000 a year.

Inquiring minds just might be asking "Why So Little?"

Indeed, I am rather puzzled over this immense travesty of justice. After all, BART station agents are highly renown worldwide for their politeness, helpfulness, and willingness to assist customers above and beyond the call of duty.

Moreover, I feel obliged to point out that station agents must meet the stringent requirements of having a high school diploma or GED equivalent.

Upon further reflection I am quite sure my California Banker friend meant to say "As underpaid compensation levels go for municipal employees, BART might be close to the top of the list."

If you live in the Bay area, please contact the mayor and your city council representatives stating your willingness for further tax hikes to provide much needed raises for the underloved, underappreciated, and underpaid BART employees.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post ListMike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 05, 2010 04:19 AM

With all eyes on Greece (and Spain and Portugal) Trichet Struggles to Convince Investors of Euro-Area Solidity.

European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet is struggling to convince investors that the euro region shouldn’t be punished for Greece’s budget problems.

As the Greek government tries to control its record deficit and the country’s bonds slide, Trichet yesterday said the economy of the 16-nation euro area is solid and its budget shortfall will probably be smaller than those of the U.S. and Japan this year. The euro nevertheless fell more than half a cent against the dollar and Spanish and Portuguese stocks dropped on concern they are in a similar predicament to Greece.

Trichet “did not convince me,” said Stuart Thomson, who helps manage $100 billion at Ignis Asset Management in Glasgow, Scotland. “Where does he think the Greek, Spanish and Portuguese economies will be three years from now? Their austerity measures will weigh on the euro area as a whole.”

Trichet has been forced to fend off questions about the survival of the euro as investors doubt Greece’s ability to cut its deficit from 12.7 percent of gross domestic product to below the European Union’s 3 percent limit. As concern spreads to Spain and Portugal’s rising debt burdens, Trichet will try to stress the need for fiscal prudence without inflaming skepticism that it can be achieved.

“Something has to happen to turn credibility around,” said Paul Mortimer-Lee, head of Market Economics at BNP Paribas in London. “The market’s just saying it’s not believable. It might have to get worse before it gets better.”

Trichet wants the world to think that hearing is believing. Others think that seeing is believing. No doubt, inquiring minds want concrete examples.

This Is Hearing

“We expect and we are confident that the Greek government will take all the decisions that will permit them to reach that goal,” Trichet said. Additional proposals announced by Greece this week to freeze public-sector wages and revamp the pension system “are steps in the right direction,” he said.

This Is Seeing

Greece’s biggest union yesterday approved a second mass strike this month to protest the spending cuts and tax collectors began a 48-hour walkout, illustrating the difficulty Prime Minister George Papandreou faces in implementing his plan.

Which one do you believe?

Portugal CDS Spreads Widen

Don't worry. An ECB commission says "Intentions Are Good".

Please consider Portugal 5-Year Sovereign CDS Spreads Hit New Wides

The cost of insuring Portuguese sovereign debt against default using credit derivatives reached a record high Wednesday, after the country sold fewer treasury bills than expected at an auction.

Portugal's five-year sovereign credit default swap spreads rose to 197 basis points Wednesday afternoon from 165 basis points Wednesday morning, according to data provider CMA DataVision.

Greece's five-year sovereign CDS spreads also widened significantly Wednesday afternoon, moving back up to 400 basis points, having dropped below 370 basis points at one point Wednesday morning.

The European Commission on Wednesday put Greece under more pressure to slash its deficit, saying the country should have until mid-March to spell out its budget program for the year.

The Commission "basically says that the intentions are good, but all the details are missing--and it implies an apparent skepticism about implementation," said Erik Nielsen, Goldman Sachs strategist, in a note.

A second strategist said that sovereign CDS markets were illiquid and that this could be contributing to the size of the moves.

I don't know about you, but I am breathing a huge sigh of relief knowing full well that in spite of mass protests in Greece and widening credit default swaps in Greece and Portugal, that "Intentions Are Good". After all, we all know "Hearing Is Believing".

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post ListMike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

February 05, 2010 12:55 AM

Democracy Now

Bill Quigley, legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights. He just returned from a trip to Haiti.

AMY GOODMAN: As we move on now to Haiti, it’s been three weeks since the massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated much of the country. The official death toll stands at 170,000; it’s expected to rise. Many more have been left injured and homeless. A full twenty-one days after the quake, survivors are still desperate to receive aid, with food, water and medical relief not reaching the areas it’s needed most.

In the Haitian town of Gressier, residents blocked roads and seized trucks Friday to protest the lack of aid. Residents said trucks with humanitarian assistance have driven through the town on the road to Léogâne, but have not stopped to distribute any aid in Gressier. Well, when we drove to Gressier two weeks ago, a young man approached us to say, well, just that.

STEVENSON CALIXTE: [translated] Up until now, people are suffering. [inaudible] People are wounded. They have broken bones. And they haven’t done anything. There are no doctors. There’s nothing, nothing here. We, here in Gressier, we don’t have anything. And they haven’t told us anything, either. And for the wounded, we can’t even figure out. And 98 percent of the houses have been destroyed.

AMY GOODMAN: Where are the people buried?

STEVENSON CALIXTE: [translated] They made a hole up here. Some places, they made mass graves.

AMY GOODMAN: Are people still caught in the rubble?

STEVENSON CALIXTE: [translated] Yes, yes, up until now. We don’t know if they’re living or dead. There’s nothing. We have no means to know if they’re living or dead. The only thing I know, everywhere you go, when you smell the odor, you know that there are people dead there.

AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, the US military on Monday resumed medical evacuation flights of critically injured Haitian earthquake victims after suspending the flights for five days. This is Air Force Colonel Len Profenna.

COL. LEN PROFENNA: We’re here to help the Haitians, and we want to move the patients as long as they’re given to us. If I’m given the mission to move the patients, I move the patients. As far as how the decision was made to stop and start, I was not involved in that decision.

AMY GOODMAN: The US military had ended the evacuation flights on Wednesday because Florida officials complained their hospitals were overwhelmed and they needed a plan for reimbursement for the care they were providing. The federal government announced Monday it would reimburse American hospitals who treat earthquake victims. Medical officials said the suspension of flights had been catastrophic for patients.

In the meantime, Haitians continue to bury their dead. On Monday, dozens of residents in the northern Haitian town of Titanyen gathered to bury relatives in a mass grave. One resident, Cartel Casseus, blasted the international community’s response to the disaster and called for the return of the ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

CARTEL CASSEUS: [translated] The Americans and the French have been in Haiti for a long time, and they never do anything. Only Aristide will do something for us. Each time Aristide wants to make a change, they make him fly away. I want to die for him. We are the people of Aristide, and we believe he’s going to come back. We don’t live, because we don’t have possibilities. We can’t go to school. We can’t go to work. We live on the street.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined here in the Democracy Now! studio in New York by Bill Quigley, the legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights. He has just returned from Haiti.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Bill. What did you find?

BILL QUIGLEY: Well, tragically, there was very little international assistance available in any of the neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince where we were. We saw tremendous examples of Haitians helping Haitians and sharing what they had, trying to take care of each other, but tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people living what I think the media has called “tent cities,” what really are sheet camps, that people don’t even have tents. They have sheets strung on ropes, with people under them.

And I really think that any person in the United States, any person in the international community that was dropped into any neighborhood in Port-au-Prince and walked two blocks would be shocked at the absence of international assistance there, because I think there was such an outpouring of individual charitable response, and—but that is just not getting to the people of Haiti.

As you know, I lived through Katrina, and I have been an advocate in there, but we’re talking, at this point, of a death toll that is a hundred times as serious as what happened in Katrina, and people without resources, without food, without water, without shelter. There has been another sixty aftershocks in the last couple of weeks. The engineers and people are advising people that they cannot move back into their houses. There is very little shelter. And there is some assistance in terms of healthcare; there’s a fair amount of international response in terms of that. But a comprehensive assistance for the people of Haiti is just not there.

AMY GOODMAN: The Associated Press reports that the Haitian government is receiving less than a penny for each dollar the United States spends on aid efforts in Haiti. Thirty-three cents of every dollar goes to the US military?

BILL QUIGLEY: Yes. Everybody who’s concerned should take a look at that brief report, because a third of it goes to military response, another third of it is going through and that, that—who knows how much of that money is actually getting into the hands of Haitians? And only one cent.

And one of the people that was very concerned that I spoke with there, I was telling him about the challenges that we had in Katrina, with out-of-state contractors and people from outside the community coming in and doing the jobs and then leaving, and he said, “Well, Bill, at least that money stayed in your own country.” He said, “You know, in the case of Haiti, it’s the outsiders who are coming in, the outsiders who are getting the assistance and getting the jobs, and then they’re going back with the money and the time back to their own country, and Haiti is being left with nothing.”

AMY GOODMAN: How does Haiti compare to the Haiti you knew before? You’ve been there many, many times.

BILL QUIGLEY: Haiti has always struggled. And, you know, the most impoverished country in our hemisphere. But it is much, much worse off. It is much harder to be a Haitian today than it’s ever been. And I think, unfortunately, from what I could see on the ground, the need of people is continuing to rise. People are getting sicker. They’re getting thinner. They have less and less food. But while the need is rising, the international response is leveling out and, if not, sort of declining. So I really fear that without a significant change in the response of the sisters and brothers of Haiti around the world, that what’s in front of Haiti for the next couple of weeks and couple of months is much worse than what it is today.

AMY GOODMAN: What is the best way to get aid to Haiti, do you think?

BILL QUIGLEY: I think that, historically, Haitians have helped Haitians and that the greatest source of—single source of money in Haiti’s economy has been money from other Haitians that have sent money in. That has been backed up because of a lack of money, lack of communications, that sort of stuff. So I think assisting Haitians in the United States to get money directly to family members in Haiti is very important.

The people on the ground kept telling me, “Put pressure on USAID to work with the Haitian community organizations, the churches.” The government is in collapse. There’s no doubt about that. And people are very upset with their government there. And you hear people saying Haitians want the United States to take over. I don’t think anybody want—I didn’t meet anybody who wants the United States to take over. They do want more assistance, and they do want assistance working in partnership with local organizations, who are begging for food and water. And they said they’ll be in charge of distributing that. And they’re ready to do it.

AMY GOODMAN: And you still—and you have this aid that we saw at the airport in Port-au-Prince, the massive mound of aid that is piled high. When we were there, aside from everything else, there were thousands of bottles of Aquafina water. A truck pulled up. We thought, oh, maybe there’s hope. And men started loading the truck, and we went up to them and asked them where are they bringing this water, and they said, “To the US embassy.”

BILL QUIGLEY: Well, there is a sense that some of the aid has been brought into the country, but it is being held in secret storage places, because whoever has it hasn’t figured out how to distribute it yet in a fair way. But in the meantime, literally, there are babies dying of malnutrition. There are elders who are dying from the shock and untreated wounds that they have had. And this is not something that we can’t do something. We can do it. But there seems to be a lack of a will. There’s lack of communication, lack of coordination.

AMY GOODMAN: The issue of letting Haitians into the United States, this holding off of critically injured Haitians to Florida hospitals?

BILL QUIGLEY: That is just disgraceful. It is just—it’s unbelievable that the state of Florida, the United States, the medical communities around the country, couldn’t figure a way to take these most critically ill, but still savable, people in. And I think it was a huge mistake on our part. But I think it is a good example of exactly what’s going on, magnified by a thousand, of what’s going on in Haiti itself.

AMY GOODMAN: The latest news of Haitian authorities arresting ten Baptist missionaries from the United States after they were caught, well, the Haitian authorities said, attempting to smuggle thirty-three Haitian children out of Haiti. These missionaries are saying, no, they just didn’t do the proper paperwork.

BILL QUIGLEY: As people know, half of Haitians are under the age of fifteen. It’s a very young country. There are little children all over the place. There are orphans all over the place. And the truth is that people are very, very desperate. So if somebody says, “Look, let me bring your child to a school. Let me bring your child to get some food and some shots, bring them to a doctor,” there are parents who would trust folks like that. So the idea that parents are being misled, that children are being spirited out of the country, that folks, for whatever purpose, are taking advantage of the situation is absolutely accurate.

At the same time, I think—I think the closer you look to what these people were doing, the closer it becomes that these folks had no clue of what they really were trying to do. There were very mixed messages. They had on their website that they were going to do wholesale adoptions. They told other people they were going to open an orphanage. They—

AMY GOODMAN: And then it turned out that some of the kids were not orphans.

BILL QUIGLEY: Yes. Several—many of the kids were not orphans. And as they said, you know, this was God’s call to them. This was God’s plan to them. And I thought the Minister of Justice in Haiti said, “Well, I’m going leave to God, you know, what belongs to God, but this is an issue of justice and law in Haiti, and we are not going to stand for it.”

AMY GOODMAN: Bill Quigley, finally, your center, the Center for Constitutional Rights, represents Maher Arar. He’s asking the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling blocking him from suing the US government.

BILL QUIGLEY: Yes. This is another example of the courts failing to uphold their duty as a check or a balance to the actions of Congress or the administration. And the courts have said, look, maybe it’s true that this guy was kidnapped, maybe it’s true that he was rendered and he was tortured and held in a little underground burial spot for a year, and it’s true that he was innocent, but this is not something for the courts to get into, because this looks into sensitive issues of foreign policy, sensitive issues of secrecy. Well, that is just—it’s a green light for the government to do whatever they want, under whatever circumstances.

And this is a guy who was snatched by the United States government at JFK Airport in New York and sent to Syria. So, I mean, it’s not something that happened in another place. We took him off of a plane in JFK, that he was going to Canada, and gave him to the Syrians, sent him to Syria to be tortured for a year, because people thought he was a terrorist, which he wasn’t. And unless the Supreme Court rises and reasserts its role, the role of the courts to hold the government accountable, then this is immunity for John Ashcroft and Bush officials, and it is impunity of the kind that w