Thursday, March 10, 2011

Flying Blind

Greg Hunter
USA Watchdog

Last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported the economy created 192,000 new jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 8.9%. The good news was reported almost everywhere as a turning point in the U.S. economy. For example, CNBC said, “U.S. employers hired more workers in February than in any month since May last year and the unemployment rate fell to a near two-year low, the strongest sign yet the recovery has become self-sustaining. . . . “We have moved into the expansion phase of the economic cycle and the economy is self-sustaining,” said Brian Levitt, an economist at Oppenheimer Funds in New York.” (Click here for the complete CNBC story.)

But if you look deeper into the numbers, as John Williams does at Shadowstats.com, you don’t see the turnaround picture. In fact, just the opposite is going on. In his latest report, Williams estimates the government is routinely overstating job growth by “230,000 jobs” a month. Using simple math, 192,000 created jobs (according to BLS) subtracted from 230,000 overstated jobs gives you an actual net loss of 38,000 jobs. I called Williams to check my analysis, and he told me it is not that simple because the government’s estimations are “the worst in modern economic history.” Williams says unemployment numbers are “openly misleading” and virtually “worthless.”


In an interview yesterday from his San Francisco office, Williams told me when it comes to calculating unemployment numbers, the BLS is “flying blind.” He admitted, “It is hard to put an exact number on the actual job losses last month, but we likely lost jobs—not gained them.” He added, “The job losses could be as high as 30,000 for last month.”

Read Full Article

Visualizing Obama's budget cuts.

SUCKER SIDE ECONOMICS, Why you can't win in the current money game - tom dennen

WHY CAN'T YOU WIN?
YOU AIN'T ALLOWED IN!

I mean, why let people in on how to really make money if you hold all the patents on it?
America is a nation of suckers who all think they are one of the two born to catch the one born every minute.
"One of the riskiest things in the world a person can say is, 'I have $10000.
What shall I do with it?' The problem with announcing that you do not know what to do with your money is that it attracts millions of people who do know what to do with your money - take it." - Donald Trump, 'Why We Want You to be Rich'.

Here's the latest put-your-money-in-the-basket scam (way ahead of 'back taxes owing? and 'Criminal Record keeping you from a job, we'll fix it for you) is... FOREX! How to make money trading currencies.
"Trade Forex Online with GFT. Free' Practice Account. Try Risk-Free Now,"
they offer, and "Open Free $100K Practice Account. Real Time Pricing. Low Spreads" plus
"Forex news and polls, Forex Trading - strategies, and the latest market news from Forex Trading analysts."
Sounds too good to be true? Yep. But the only people it's true for is the guys who get a cut from your trade, buy or sell, win or lose which is what happens when you start using your own money.
But there aren't any courses on that part of the deal!
How many Americans still smoke knowing that it's a certified serial killer?
And, it's been revealed, a radioactive serial killer?

"Millions are spent on anti smoking and anti tobacco use campaigns, but so much more is spent on advertising the stuff that it doesn't matter, even though "Tobacco is the only legally available consumer product which kills people when used entirely as intended." - Dr. John Hurt, Boston's Lahey Clinic tobacco abuse center.

The key phrase is, "it doesn't matter" because money talks and the closer you are to it, the better you can hear it: the more money spent the better the message gets to you - ask any politician.
In a society where 'things' are rated far higher than any form of wisdom, its people will soon find themselves addicted to things, things and even more things - bigger things, 'better' things and not lone whit of the small wisdom needed to stop suicide by smoking.
But that's not the intent.
Addiction to 'things' hides the addiction to 'materialism' which ends up as addiction to debt, which brings us back to 'sucker' side economics: Money based on debt or 'the greedy leading the greedy'.
We all blame Wall Street for today's grand theft of the planet's assets, but Wall Street knows that suckers will gamble in their casinos even when the suckers know that the house is rigged.
Tough shit, guys! Caveat emptor!
Things will only start to change when the ongoing robberies start to affect the lower end of the establishment, the self-appointed entitled - the 'us guys' people who think that they are part of the ruling elite right up to the point when they discover that they too are suckers.


Anyone popped a Wisconsin / Ohio / New Jersey / Maine... picket line today?

London arrests made in Icelandic banking case

Sigurdur Einarsson, former chairman of Kaupthing Bank, and Robert Tchenguiz, who was the now-defunct bank’s biggest customer, were both arrested this morning in London in a joint operation by the Serious Fraud Office and Iceland’s Special Prosecutor into the banking crash.

Searches were carried out at two business premises in the British capital this morning and at the homes of eight people. Seven people were arrested in the operation carried out by the SFO in conjunction with the Metropolitan and Essex police forces.

According to Visir.is, Robert Tchenguiz, his brother Vincent, Armann Thorvaldsson, former Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander president, and Sigurdur Einarsson are among those arrested at around 05.30 this morning.

One of the searches was carried out at the office of Rotch Property, the business of Vincent Tchenguiz. Today’s searches and arrests are connected to the demise of Kaupthing Bank, according to the Serious Fraud Office. 135 police officers took part in the operation.

Two personal residences were also searched in Reykjavik and two people arrested. The names of those arrested in Iceland have not yet been made available; but they are said to be 42 and 43 years-old. It was the SFO which requested the raids and arrests in Reykjavik and the operation was carried out by Icelandic police, representatives of the Special Prosecutor and SFO representatives from the UK.

More to follow.

Frauction Day - Surprise Ending Live Footage

Michigan workers jam Capitol to protest union plan

(Reuters) - In a scene reminiscent of Wisconsin, hundreds of pro-union protesters jammed the Michigan state Capitol on Tuesday to oppose a bill that would give emergency managers authority to break labor deals to revive failing schools and cities.

About 1,000 pro-union demonstrators gathered on the Capitol steps in Lansing, Michigan, then 400 entered the building to occupy the rotunda and floors overlooking as the Republican state Senate moved the bill toward a final vote expected Wednesday.

New Republican Gov. Rick Snyder's proposal would expand the powers of emergency financial managers who are named to oversee faltering school districts and cities. The House approved the measure in February. Republicans hold a 26-12 Senate majority.

In Wisconsin, protesters occupied the Capitol Building in Madison for weeks to protest new Republican Gov. Scott Walker's proposals to limit public sector union powers for collective bargaining and require yearly recertification votes.

With Michigan cities and school districts struggling from the severe recession and potential state funding cuts, the bill expands the power for the state to name financial overseers.

The state's biggest school district, the Detroit Public Schools, was put under the emergency financial management of by Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm in 2009. It is the only district in the state under emergency management.

Brent Gillette, political director for the AFL-CIO in Michigan, said he was frustrated that Republicans did not discuss it in advance and sees parallels to the power-reducing union limits proposed in Wisconsin.

"I've heard him say more than once that he wants to be transparent that he wants to talk across the table, he doesn't want this to be Wisconsin," Gillette said of Michigan's Snyder. "Unfortunately, this bill says to me that he wants to take on the same fight as Wisconsin. He just wants to do it from the back door."

Steve Benkovsky, director of Capitol facilities, said demonstrators filled the base of the rotunda, the second and third floor balconies and filtered onto the fourth floor. He estimated the crowd at about 400 inside and 1,000 total.

"They seemed pretty well behaved other than being boisterous," Benkovsky said. No arrests were made.

D.C. Bank of America branch shut down by protesters

They jump up and down and deny it when it’s pointed out, but the Observer has always sucked up to Bank of America, as well as its predecessors, all the way back to the pre-NCNB days of Commercial National Bank. The latest example was last week’s story that told readers how the new corporate bonuses at BofA were “a plus for the local economy.” Try telling that to the man or woman whose small business went belly-up because BofA wouldn’t give him/her a small business loan last year.
So it’s funny that the daily paper didn’t run anything today about yesterday’s launch of a national “Make Wall Street Pay” campaign in Washington, D.C. It’s funny because Bank of America was targeted in the protest; in fact, a Pennsylvania Ave. branch of BofA was essentially shut down by demonstrators who poured into the bank. They were protesting investment banks’ part in the national financial meltdown, and banks’ use of tax loopholes to avoid paying taxes. The National People’s Action group, which started the Make Wall St. Pay protests, says banks’ financial duplicity makes it imperative that they contribute to the government revenue stream in order to avoid cutting programs for ordinary Americans.
The group’s website is interesting, and urges readers to calculate the income they’ve lost since the financial crisis began in 2008, then send their own bill to their representatives in Washington. Here is a short video of the protest in D.C. yesterday.


Once Again, a Government ‘Improvement’ Makes Things Exponentially Worse



This Congressman Ted Poe (R - TX), explains the disaster of the Government taking over our Light bulbs. Once we are forced by the Federal government to use only the new (CHINESE) environmentally-“friendly” CFL light bulbs by 2014.

Please watch this short Video to see how STUPID the Governemnt is to pass these insane laws.

Hat Tip to Mr. I

Breaking: Newly Obtained Homeland Security Documents Reveal Radical Shift In Internet Policy

Internet user arrested for linking to other websites.


Brian McCarthy ran a website, channelsurfing.net, that linked to various sites where you could watch online streams of TV shows and sports networks. A couple months ago, the government seized his domain name and on Friday they arrested him and charged him with criminal copyright infringement -- punishable by five years in prison.

We just obtained a copy of the complaint (below) that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made against him -- and they don't even allege that he made a copy of anything! Just that he ran what they call a "linking website" which linked to various sites with copyrighted material. Under that sort of thinking, everyone who's sent around a link to a copyrighted YouTube video is a criminal.

This is another shocking overreach by DHS and ICE -- a steamship-era department that's proving once again that it doesn't understand the Internet. We need to push back -- and fast -- before they try to lock up more Americans.

PETITION TO JANET NAPOLITANO, DIRECTOR OF HOMELAND SECURITY, AND JOHN MORTON, DIRECTOR OF IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: There's nothing wrong or illegal about posting a link to a website. This is another shocking overreach by ICE: You need to drop the charges against Brian McCarthy right away.

SIGN THE PETITION HERE: we'll deliver the petition to DHS and ICE later this month.