S&P Threatens US With Another Downgrade In As Little As 6 Months
Will A be the new AA+? Perhaps, if the S&P follows through with its latest threat. Bloomberg reports that, "the U.S., lacking a plan to contain $1 trillion deficits, faces the prospect of another rating cut in six to 24 months depending on the outcome of November elections, according to John Chambers of Standard & Poor’s. America has had an AA+ rating with a negative outlook since Aug. 5 when the New York-based unit of McGraw-Hill Cos. stripped the nation of its AAA ranking for the first time, citing the government’s failure to agree on a path to reduce deficits. The U.S. has a one-in-three chance of another downgrade, Chamber said today during an S&P sponsored Webcast. “What the U.S. needs is not so much a short-term fiscal tightening, but it has to have a credible medium-term fiscal plan,” said Chambers, managing director of sovereign ratings." Too bad the US doesn't even have a fiscal plan what it will do tomorrow, let alone in the "medium-term" courtesy of the most deadlocked political system ever. As for "credible" - forget it. And as was shown, if the first US downgrade from August 5, 2011 broke the US stock market, we can't wait to find out how the Citadel-controlled, FRBNY-blessed stock market will deal with this particular event. In other news, we are still waiting to hear from Moody's on both the US and France.INSANE: New York Times Publishes Hit Piece Against US Constitution
Homeland Security Lexicon: You’re All ‘Militia Extremists’ Now
by Paul Joseph Watson, InfoWars.com:
As part of its effort to encourage business owners to spy on their customers, the FBI has labeled the bulk purchase of food as a potential indication of terrorist activity, despite the fact that FEMA itself last year purchased $1 billion dollars worth of storable food.
A flyer aimed at Military Surplus stores produced under the auspices of the FBI’s Communities Against Terrorism project, encourages owners to report people who “make bulk purchases of items to include….meals ready to eat”.
According to the flyer, the FBI advises store owners to demand ID’s from all new customers, as well as asking them questions about their purchase and being aware of “suspicious statements”.
The flyer also characterizes paying with cash or “demanding identity privacy” as an indication of terrorism.
Read More @ InfoWars.com
by Peter C. Earle, Mises.org:
The
policies that the Fed embarked on in late 2007 are a sharp departure
from the old way of performing monetary policy. In fact, it is difficult
to state that the Fed is any longer in the business of traditional
monetary policy — understood in the United States as aiming for low
inflation and smoothed output volatility. A new breed of monetary
policies better referred to as “quasi-fiscal” policies has become the
norm.
The Fed’s policies have a fiscal flair to them for two reasons.
First, no longer are output and inflation the primary concerns. The Fed has framed any reference to inflation over the past four years in the context of either:
Read More @ Mises.org
The
policies that the Fed embarked on in late 2007 are a sharp departure
from the old way of performing monetary policy. In fact, it is difficult
to state that the Fed is any longer in the business of traditional
monetary policy — understood in the United States as aiming for low
inflation and smoothed output volatility. A new breed of monetary
policies better referred to as “quasi-fiscal” policies has become the
norm.The Fed’s policies have a fiscal flair to them for two reasons.
First, no longer are output and inflation the primary concerns. The Fed has framed any reference to inflation over the past four years in the context of either:
Read More @ Mises.org
by Bob Chapman, GlobalResearch.ca:
There
are many ways for sovereigns to sell their bonds or roll over existing
bonds, and one of those wrinkles we mentioned last week. We saw European
banks buying US Treasuries and that is happening. These euro banks buy
Treasuries and then put them up for collateral with the ECB and purchase
the three-year 1% yield repos being offered by the ECB. This is really
another form of quantitative easing. It may be debt but it is also an
expansion of the money supply. This little game allows US Treasury
financing and if something goes wrong the ECB, the public, gets caught
holding the bag. Obviously this is another part of the Ponzi scheme that
the elitists are using to keep the monetary system afloat.
The idea that Germany wants Greece to give up control of tax and spending decisions has met a stonewall in Greece, as one would expect. That is like financial occupation, what the Greeks went through in the 1940s. We do not think the German demands have a chance of acceptance and that $170 billion bailout will take place.
Read More @ GlobalResearch.ca
There
are many ways for sovereigns to sell their bonds or roll over existing
bonds, and one of those wrinkles we mentioned last week. We saw European
banks buying US Treasuries and that is happening. These euro banks buy
Treasuries and then put them up for collateral with the ECB and purchase
the three-year 1% yield repos being offered by the ECB. This is really
another form of quantitative easing. It may be debt but it is also an
expansion of the money supply. This little game allows US Treasury
financing and if something goes wrong the ECB, the public, gets caught
holding the bag. Obviously this is another part of the Ponzi scheme that
the elitists are using to keep the monetary system afloat.The idea that Germany wants Greece to give up control of tax and spending decisions has met a stonewall in Greece, as one would expect. That is like financial occupation, what the Greeks went through in the 1940s. We do not think the German demands have a chance of acceptance and that $170 billion bailout will take place.
Read More @ GlobalResearch.ca
[Ed. Note: The military industrial complex and your criminal congress, a match made in Hell.]
by Shaun Waterman, WashingtonTimes.com:
Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s … a drone, and it’s watching you. That’s what privacy advocates fear from a bill Congress passed this week to make it easier for the government to fly unmanned spy planes in U.S. airspace.
The FAA Reauthorization Act, which President Obama is expected to sign, also orders the Federal Aviation Administration to develop regulations for the testing and licensing of commercial drones by 2015.
Privacy advocates say the measure will lead to widespread use of drones for electronic surveillance by police agencies across the country and eventually by private companies as well.
“There are serious policy questions on the horizon about privacy and surveillance, by both government agencies and commercial entities,” said Steven Aftergood, who heads the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists.
Read More @ WashingtonTimes.com
by Shaun Waterman, WashingtonTimes.com:
Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s … a drone, and it’s watching you. That’s what privacy advocates fear from a bill Congress passed this week to make it easier for the government to fly unmanned spy planes in U.S. airspace.
The FAA Reauthorization Act, which President Obama is expected to sign, also orders the Federal Aviation Administration to develop regulations for the testing and licensing of commercial drones by 2015.
Privacy advocates say the measure will lead to widespread use of drones for electronic surveillance by police agencies across the country and eventually by private companies as well.
“There are serious policy questions on the horizon about privacy and surveillance, by both government agencies and commercial entities,” said Steven Aftergood, who heads the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists.
Read More @ WashingtonTimes.com
Lew Rockwell on Freedom Watch: Two Parties = Zero Difference. The Horrors of Big Government.
27% Second Place Finish in Minnesota: Ron Paul Breaks Through Yet Another Ceiling
by Raoul Ruparel, CityAM.com:
OVER
the last few weeks, negotiations over a potential write-down of
Greece’s debt have taken us here and there, and back again – and at the
time of writing, they remain unresolved. But whatever the outcome of the
talks between the Greek government and its creditors, let’s not forget
the bigger picture – ultimately, the current approach to Greece’s
enormous economic problems is failing. Another bailout along with a
“voluntary” Greek restructuring cannot be put together in a way that
makes it politically acceptable and/or economically viable – it simply
will not return Greece to solvency. The insistence on greater austerity,
despite EU leaders’ recent talk about growth and jobs, is reaching its
political and civil limit in Greece. While Greece clearly needs to
consolidate its budget, it cannot live on austerity alone.
Even if a deal can be agreed between the Greek government, its bondholders and the Eurozone, it will most likely fall well short of the debt reduction (or funding stream) needed to give Athens breathing space. As things stand at the moment, the immediate debt reduction under a restructuring would be minimal, leaving Greece’s debt burden hovering worryingly above 140 per cent of GDP. Furthermore, in a best case scenario, Greece would still have a 120 per cent debt to GDP ratio in 2020 and would need to find a scary €252bn (£210.24bn) before then to stay afloat (if it meets all of the targets laid down but the EU/ECB/IMF troika). All of this points to a depressing prediction: even with the haircut currently being discussed, Greece could still be forced to undergo a full default within the next few years. The numbers simply do not add up.
Read More @ CityAM.com
from WealthCycles:
Imagine
if, as a household, you went into debt deeper and deeper every year.
You announced your intentions to do so periodically, and as you went
along, you consistently spent around 2 times more than your income.
Would you be viewed as less reliable over time?
When considering wealth management, the best financial information comes to us (and everyone else) courtesy of the U.S. debt numbers.
With a debt to GDP ratio now at 105%, the U.S. crossed the significant 100% threshold around the beginning of the year. The deeper into debt the U.S. and other countries around the world go, the less valuable the dollar and all paper currencies become—and the higher gold is valued.
Read More @ WealthCycles.com
In the last week or so, I’ve noticed an unusual amount of really well written and researched articles warning of impending doom and financial horror. These articles are not written by a bunch of angry uneducated bloggers but by money managers, investors and financial writers. All are people who got it right leading up to the meltdown of 2008, and my bet is they are right again. The mainstream media (MSM) told you after the 2008 crash, “Nobody saw that coming,” which is a bold faced lie that will not work again.
Jim Quinn of TheBurningPlatform.com wrote a tour de force of troubling realities you will never hear on the MSM. Quinn lays out the case for coming ruin with stats, charts and razor sharp logic in a post called “Illusion of Recovery–Feelings vs. Facts.” In his summation, Quinn says, “There is no avoiding the final collapse of a boom created solely by credit expansion. Those in power will never voluntarily relinquish their grand game of pillaging the wealth of the nation, so economic collapse will be the ultimate result. They will continue to use propaganda, printing presses, and half-truths to further their agenda. But those who examine the facts will come to a logical conclusion that we are being sold a great lie.” (Click here to read this very long but very good Jim Quinn post.)
Read More @ USAWatchdog.com
OVER
the last few weeks, negotiations over a potential write-down of
Greece’s debt have taken us here and there, and back again – and at the
time of writing, they remain unresolved. But whatever the outcome of the
talks between the Greek government and its creditors, let’s not forget
the bigger picture – ultimately, the current approach to Greece’s
enormous economic problems is failing. Another bailout along with a
“voluntary” Greek restructuring cannot be put together in a way that
makes it politically acceptable and/or economically viable – it simply
will not return Greece to solvency. The insistence on greater austerity,
despite EU leaders’ recent talk about growth and jobs, is reaching its
political and civil limit in Greece. While Greece clearly needs to
consolidate its budget, it cannot live on austerity alone.Even if a deal can be agreed between the Greek government, its bondholders and the Eurozone, it will most likely fall well short of the debt reduction (or funding stream) needed to give Athens breathing space. As things stand at the moment, the immediate debt reduction under a restructuring would be minimal, leaving Greece’s debt burden hovering worryingly above 140 per cent of GDP. Furthermore, in a best case scenario, Greece would still have a 120 per cent debt to GDP ratio in 2020 and would need to find a scary €252bn (£210.24bn) before then to stay afloat (if it meets all of the targets laid down but the EU/ECB/IMF troika). All of this points to a depressing prediction: even with the haircut currently being discussed, Greece could still be forced to undergo a full default within the next few years. The numbers simply do not add up.
Read More @ CityAM.com
by John Shmuel, Business.FinancialPost.com:
Speculation
has been running high in recent weeks that Israel may undertake a
military operation to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities in a pre-emptive
attack.
That speculation went into overdrive last week after the Washington Post ran an article saying that U.S. defense secretary Leon E. Panetta believed an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities could occur as early as spring.
Richard Russell, writer of the Dow Theory Letter, believes that an attack is coming and market behaviour proves it.
“The stock market is acting as though something momentous and frightening is ‘out there,’” he said in a recent note. “The roof of a monster top is building. Gold keeps creeping higher.”
Read More @ Business.FinancialPost.com
Speculation
has been running high in recent weeks that Israel may undertake a
military operation to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities in a pre-emptive
attack.That speculation went into overdrive last week after the Washington Post ran an article saying that U.S. defense secretary Leon E. Panetta believed an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities could occur as early as spring.
Richard Russell, writer of the Dow Theory Letter, believes that an attack is coming and market behaviour proves it.
“The stock market is acting as though something momentous and frightening is ‘out there,’” he said in a recent note. “The roof of a monster top is building. Gold keeps creeping higher.”
Read More @ Business.FinancialPost.com
from Silver Doctors:
It’s
been awhile since we updated readers on silver’s backwardation status.
Last summer while silver traded in extreme backwardation, we discussed that silver’s extreme backwardation while gold remained firmly in contango was evidence of COMEX default risk in silver, rather than a risk of dollar devaluation (or else gold would have been just as firmly in backwardation as silver).
On July 21st, the back month contract of Dec 15 was trading at a .65 discount to spot.
Fast forward 7 months (and 2 more cartel silver smashes) later. and silver remains in continual, unending backwardation.
Silver currently first enters backwardation with the July 14 contract, with the back month (now Dec 16) still trading at an almost identical 0.60 discount to spot (February 2012).
After being smashed from $44 to $26, and clawing its way nearly back to $35, back-month backwardation in silver is nearly unchanged!
Read More @ SilverDoctors.Blogspot.com
It’s
been awhile since we updated readers on silver’s backwardation status.
Last summer while silver traded in extreme backwardation, we discussed that silver’s extreme backwardation while gold remained firmly in contango was evidence of COMEX default risk in silver, rather than a risk of dollar devaluation (or else gold would have been just as firmly in backwardation as silver).On July 21st, the back month contract of Dec 15 was trading at a .65 discount to spot.
Fast forward 7 months (and 2 more cartel silver smashes) later. and silver remains in continual, unending backwardation.
Silver currently first enters backwardation with the July 14 contract, with the back month (now Dec 16) still trading at an almost identical 0.60 discount to spot (February 2012).
After being smashed from $44 to $26, and clawing its way nearly back to $35, back-month backwardation in silver is nearly unchanged!
Read More @ SilverDoctors.Blogspot.com
by Gary North, LewRockwell.com:
In my report, “The Crucial Pillar of the New World Order,”
I argued that education is the key to the modern New World Order, or
Superclass, as David Rothkopf calls it. The system of about 20 elite
universities, plus a handful of exclusive four-year private colleges, is
the crucial institutional means of screening entry into the inner ring of power.
I argued that a great shift has been in progress since 1960. The best universities began to screen by means of a specific kind of intellect, namely, the ability to take written examinations. I described this as the Prussian system. It is a system based on merit, but a peculiar form of merit: performance on exams. Writing well also counts. As these formal criteria have been made the barriers to entry, legacy sons from the Old World Order have not gained entry.
The Prussian system is replacing the Oxford-Cambridge-Harvard system. The Prussian system extends its way into the K-12 educational system. There, two tracks existed until 1950: the Prussian and the vocational. What is formal and unbreakable in Germany is less formal and less unbreakable in the United States. But it exists. Today, there is a third track. There are the vocational students, the community college-bound students, and the Advanced Placement exam students. Not many students cross over.
The dreams of those Utopian Unitarians of the nineteenth century who pioneered tax-funded K-12 education are no longer taken seriously. The messianic character of American education has slowly morphed into the caretaker mentality described by John Taylor Gatto.
Read More @ LewRockwell.com
In my report, “The Crucial Pillar of the New World Order,”
I argued that education is the key to the modern New World Order, or
Superclass, as David Rothkopf calls it. The system of about 20 elite
universities, plus a handful of exclusive four-year private colleges, is
the crucial institutional means of screening entry into the inner ring of power.I argued that a great shift has been in progress since 1960. The best universities began to screen by means of a specific kind of intellect, namely, the ability to take written examinations. I described this as the Prussian system. It is a system based on merit, but a peculiar form of merit: performance on exams. Writing well also counts. As these formal criteria have been made the barriers to entry, legacy sons from the Old World Order have not gained entry.
The Prussian system is replacing the Oxford-Cambridge-Harvard system. The Prussian system extends its way into the K-12 educational system. There, two tracks existed until 1950: the Prussian and the vocational. What is formal and unbreakable in Germany is less formal and less unbreakable in the United States. But it exists. Today, there is a third track. There are the vocational students, the community college-bound students, and the Advanced Placement exam students. Not many students cross over.
The dreams of those Utopian Unitarians of the nineteenth century who pioneered tax-funded K-12 education are no longer taken seriously. The messianic character of American education has slowly morphed into the caretaker mentality described by John Taylor Gatto.
Read More @ LewRockwell.com
Imagine
if, as a household, you went into debt deeper and deeper every year.
You announced your intentions to do so periodically, and as you went
along, you consistently spent around 2 times more than your income.
Would you be viewed as less reliable over time?When considering wealth management, the best financial information comes to us (and everyone else) courtesy of the U.S. debt numbers.
With a debt to GDP ratio now at 105%, the U.S. crossed the significant 100% threshold around the beginning of the year. The deeper into debt the U.S. and other countries around the world go, the less valuable the dollar and all paper currencies become—and the higher gold is valued.
Read More @ WealthCycles.com
In the last week or so, I’ve noticed an unusual amount of really well written and researched articles warning of impending doom and financial horror. These articles are not written by a bunch of angry uneducated bloggers but by money managers, investors and financial writers. All are people who got it right leading up to the meltdown of 2008, and my bet is they are right again. The mainstream media (MSM) told you after the 2008 crash, “Nobody saw that coming,” which is a bold faced lie that will not work again.
Jim Quinn of TheBurningPlatform.com wrote a tour de force of troubling realities you will never hear on the MSM. Quinn lays out the case for coming ruin with stats, charts and razor sharp logic in a post called “Illusion of Recovery–Feelings vs. Facts.” In his summation, Quinn says, “There is no avoiding the final collapse of a boom created solely by credit expansion. Those in power will never voluntarily relinquish their grand game of pillaging the wealth of the nation, so economic collapse will be the ultimate result. They will continue to use propaganda, printing presses, and half-truths to further their agenda. But those who examine the facts will come to a logical conclusion that we are being sold a great lie.” (Click here to read this very long but very good Jim Quinn post.)
Read More @ USAWatchdog.com
by Charles Hugh Smith, OfTwoMinds.com:
Social fractals and social control myths help explain the complete corruption of America.
Correspondent Kathy K. recently elucidated a powerful concept: social fractals. We typically think of fractals–structures that are scale-invariant–as features of Nature or finance. For example, a coastline has the same characteristically ragged appearance from 100 feet, 1,000 feet and 10,000 feet in altitude. It is scale-invariant, i.e. its characteristics remain constant whether it is viewed on a small, medium or large scale.
This is how Kathy described social fractals:
Read More @ OfTwoMinds.com
Social fractals and social control myths help explain the complete corruption of America.Correspondent Kathy K. recently elucidated a powerful concept: social fractals. We typically think of fractals–structures that are scale-invariant–as features of Nature or finance. For example, a coastline has the same characteristically ragged appearance from 100 feet, 1,000 feet and 10,000 feet in altitude. It is scale-invariant, i.e. its characteristics remain constant whether it is viewed on a small, medium or large scale.
This is how Kathy described social fractals:
“This dishonest,
self-serving individual behavior is a fractal of what is happening in
our society at large: dishonest and self-serving people are extending
and pretending, and their complicity keeps the system going.”
The concept of social fractals can be illustrated with a simple
example. If the individuals in a family unit are all healthy, thrifty,
honest, caring and responsible, then how could that family be
dysfunctional, spendthrift, venal and dishonest? It is not possible to
aggregate individuals into a family unit and not have that family
manifest the self-same characteristics of the individuals. This is the
essence of fractals.Read More @ OfTwoMinds.com
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