10 signs the double-dip recession has begun

Many Americans believe that the 2008-2009 downturn never ended

MSNBC -

Friday's news on GDP shows the double dip has arrived — an expansion of only 1.3 percent and consumer spending up 0.1 percent in the second quarter. Astonishingly low by any account. The debt ceiling trouble and lack of a longer term resolution to the deficit will make it worse.

The U.S. has entered a second recession. It may not be as bad as the first. Economists say that the Great Recession began in December 2007 and lasted until July 2009. That may be the way that the economy was seen through the eyes of experts, but many Americans do not believe that the 2008-2009 downturn ever ended. A Gallup poll released in April found that 29 percent of those queried thought the economy was in a “depression” and 26 percent said that the original recession had persisted into 2011.

It is any wonder that many Americans believe that the economic downturn is still in progress? Home prices have fallen to 2002 levels. Values have dropped nearly 50 percent in parts of Florida, California, Nevada and Arizona. Property values are also down that much in parts of troubled big cities like Detroit. Estimates are that as many as 11 million homes have underwater mortgages. Banks have inventories of as many as 2 million foreclosed homes which have not even been released to the market. Home prices could fall another 10 percent if current trends persist.

Perhaps the most powerful argument that the recession never ended or that a new one has begun is the persistence of unemployment. Fourteen million people are out of work. A third of those have been jobless for more than a year. May employment data showed the jobless rate rose unexpectedly and that the economy added only 58,000 jobs. Experts believe that the unemployment rate will not improve significantly until the monthly gain in jobs is consistently 300,000 jobs or more. And, at that rate the gains would have to go one for more than two years to bring the economy back to what is traditionally considered a reasonable unemployment figure.

There are several signs that a recession is firmly in place again and that the downturn could last for several quarters. Most are already easy for the average American to see.

1. Inflation
There is almost nothing that damages consumer confidence as badly as a rapid rise in prices. Starbucks recently increased the price of a bag of coffee by 17 percent because wholesale prices have risen by almost twice that rate in the last year. Cotton prices nearly doubled in 2010 but have fallen this year. But, apparel is made months in advance of when they reach store shelves. Summer clothing prices are up as much as 20 percent. That may change in the fall, but for the time being, the consumer’s ability to buy even the most basic clothing has been undermined. Consumers today pay more for sugar, meat, and corn-based products as well.

2. Investments have begun to yield less
Part of the recovery was driven by the stock market surge which began when the DJIA bottomed below 7,000 in March 2009. The index has risen above 12,000 and the prices of many stocks have doubled from their lows. As result, American household nest eggs that were decimated by the collapse of the market have rebounded and enabled people to splurge on themselves. However, the market has stumbled in the last quarter. The DJIA is up only 1 percent during the last three months and the S&P 500 is down slightly.

Americans, though, have few other places to put their money. Ten-year Treasuries yield about 3 percent. Gold was a good investment over the last year, but it has begun to falter as well (yeah, okay buddy...it's at record highs. Pay no attention to gold!). The market may not be a friend to investors for quite some time.

3. The auto industry
The auto industry has staged an impressive comeback, although its profitability is based as much on the layoffs it has made over the last five years as generating new sales. GM and Chrysler have emerged from bankruptcy. Year-over-year monthly sales improved late last year and through April. May sales stalled. GM’s revenue dropped by 1 percent compared to May of 2010. Ford’s sales were down about as much. There are many reasons for this trend including high gas prices and the constrained manufacturing capacity of the Japanese automakers because of the earthquake. Consumers also may be deferring big purchases because they are worried about their economic prospects. Slow car sales are not just a sign of lagging consumer confidence. They also may be a harbinger of tougher times ahead. These companies shed several hundreds thousand jobs before and during the last recession. Car firms have only just begun to hire again, but that trend will die with a plateau in sales.

4. Oil prices
Oil prices are supposed to drop as the economy slows as they did in 2008 and early 2009 when crude fell from over $140 to under $50. That drop at least allowed consumers and businesses like airlines to more easily afford fuel. Recently, crude has moved back above $100 and appears to be stuck there regardless of the economic situation. American budgets have been hurt by the rising cost of gas. Americans of more modest means have been particularly affected. A slowdown in driving usually also leads to a decline in the retail sector as consumers reduce unnecessary travel to stores. The impact on other businesses is just as great. Airlines suffer and so do firms which rely on petrochemicals. OPEC, for now, has signaled it will not increase production.

5. The federal budget
The federal budget deficit has decimated any chance for another economic stimulus package which many prominent economists like Nobel Prize-winner Paul Krugman say is essential to create a full recovery. His theory has become more of an issue as GDP growth slows to a rate of 2 percent. The first $787 billion Obama stimulus package may have saved some American jobs, but it is long over and did not work if a drop in unemployment and a sharp improvement in GDP were its primary goals. The deficit has caused a call for severe austerity measures which have already become part of the economics policies of countries from Greece to the U.K. to Japan. Job cuts in the U.S. will not be restricted to the federal level. A recent UBS Investment Research analysis predicted that state and local governments will cut 450,000 jobs this year and next. That process is already well underway. States like California and New York currently run massive deficits and the rates they must pay on bonds has risen accordingly. Newspaper headlines almost daily report on battles between state unions and governors over employment and benefits.

6. China economy slows
A slowdown in the Chinese economy is usually seen as a cause of global commodity price inflation, but the effects cut two ways. China’s appetite for energy and raw materials may fall. But, the demand for goods and services by its very large and growing middle class drops as well. Chinese purchaser manufacturing and export numbers have fallen as the central government has tightened the ability to borrow money. US exports to China are key to the health of many American businesses. John Frisbie, the president of The US-China Business Council, recently said, "Over the last decade we have seen exports to China rise from $16.2 billion to $91.9 billion — a 468 percent increase.” As that rate slows, it has a profound effect on tens of thousands of American companies and their employees. U.S. firms with large operations in China are also effected. GM is one of the two largest car firms in China along with VW. Large U.S. corporations like Wal-mart and Yum! Brands rely significantly on China to boost global sales. Without vibrant consumer spending in China, American companies will suffer.

7. Unemployment
Unemployment creates two immediate problems. People without jobs drastically curtail their spending, which will ultimately affect GDP growth. The second is the need for tens of billions of dollars every year in government aid to keep the unemployed from becoming destitute. That support has increased deficits and the domino effect is that cash-strapped governments need to make more spending cuts. It may be the biggest challenge the economy faces.

Unemployment has worsened because people over 65 to continue to work because the values of their homes — which they once counted on as the financial basis of their retirements — have dropped so sharply. Older Americans also fear that cuts in Medicare and perhaps Social Security are inevitable which increases the cost of their golden years. The jobs that older Americans have taken are often ones that younger Americans might have. People in their 20s must accept low wages to enter the workforce. This has delayed their prime consuming years well into their 30s which will damage GDP recovery now and for another decade.

The worst of the unemployment problem is the roughly 5 million Americans who have been unemployed for over a year. Their unemployment benefits have run out in many cases. The burden of their care falls to their families, friends, community organizations and non-profits. A family which has to support an unemployed person may be a family which cannot spend beyond its basic needs. To the extent that the federal or state governments can support the unemployed, the cost to run support programs increases.

8. Debt ceiling
The United States debt ceiling, currently at $14.294 trillion, will probably be raised before the government has to cut back essential services on Aug. 2. It might seem that the economic and employment effects of the debt cap are the same as the deficit, but they are actually more insidious and longer term. The first by-product of debt reduction, or at least a slowdown in its growth, is a combination of higher taxes and a lower level of government services. Higher taxes usually slow economic improvements, particularly when they are not coupled with stimulus measures.

A number of economists have pointed out the expense reduction alone will not sharply improve the United States balance sheet. The increase in Medicare and Social Securities costs, brought on by an aging population, are also likely to trigger a need for higher taxes. Tax increases could keep the economic growth of the US on hold for years. The taxation of companies decreases and often eliminates profits, particularly during an already troubled economic period. Profits which disappear usually cause cuts in purchasing and jobs. Taxes on wages and inheritance undermines consumer spending. And, a growth in national debt from already all-time highs will increase the borrowing costs of the U.S. That, in turn, drives up interest rates for everything from mortgages to credit cards.

9. Access To credit
The lack of access to credit has hurt the economic activity or both individuals and small businesses. Many very large companies can borrow money at rates as low as 2 percent because of their strong cash flows and balance sheets. Banks have been much less willing to loan money to companies with under 100 workers because these firms often rely on a few customers for revenue and usually have very little money on hand.

Early in June, the House Small Business Committee held hearings and among its findings were that concerns about risk and a slow economy has made financial institutions reluctant to lend to small businesses, the main driver of economic growth. Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) said Congress will need to “bridge the gap” between the two sides. There is no plan to accomplish that. Individual borrowers find themselves in a similar position. The cost of credit cards debt is still above 20 percent in many cases although the Federal Reserve loans money to large financial firms for interest rates close to zero.

Potential home buyers, who might help break the gridlock of slow house sales, often find that banks want down payments as high as 20 percent. The median down payment in nine major U.S. cities rose to 22 percent last year on properties purchased through conventional mortgages, according to an analysis done for The Wall Street Journal by real-estate portal Zillow.com. That percentage doubled in three years and represents the highest median down payment since the data were first tracked in 1997. Homes which are not sold often put such great burdens on owners that they are barely consumers of the goods and services that drive GDP. Home builders have continued to struggle. Construction jobs, which were a huge amount of the employment base in states like Florida, have not returned.

10. Housing
Housing is considered by many economists to be the single largest drag on the American economy, and the housing market has gotten much worse in the last two months. A report from The New York Federal Reserve published early this year said: “When home prices began to fall in 2007, owners’ equity in household real estate began to fall rapidly from almost $13.5 trillion in 1Q 2006 to a little under $5.3 trillion in 1Q 2009, a decline in total home equity of over 60 percent.”

Real estate research firm Zillow reported on more recent developments. “Negative equity in the first quarter reached new highs with 28.4 percent of all single-family homes with mortgages underwater, from 27 percent in Q4.” Many homeowners who want to sell their homes cannot do so because they cannot afford to pay their banks at closing. Whether for good or ill, the American home was the primary source for money used for retirements, college educations and the purchases of many expensive items such as cars.

Economists point out the this leverage helped contribute to the credit crisis as people could not cover the costs of home equity loans as real estate values collapsed. This may be true, but the drop in value happened so quickly that the balance sheets of millions of Americans were destroyed. Their ability to consume was severely damaged, further harming GDP. High mortgage payments bankrupted or nearly bankrupted people who have lost jobs or have found that their incomes had stagnated. The building industry became a shambles overnight. And, whatever the effects have been over the last three years, they are getting progressively worse as home values drop to decade lows. There is no relief in sight because potential buyers worry that price erosion has not ended.

The Deepening Depression

William L Anderson
Mises Institute

While Austrians and Keynesians don't agree on a lot of things, there is one thing on which they both seem to agree: the US economy is sinking into the morass of depression. At that point, however, the agreement ends, as the two schools have very different explanations as to why this is happening.

The Keynesians, through Paul Krugman and his New York Times megaphone, have been claiming that the original Barack Obama "stimulus" was too little, and the current emphasis on budget cutting at all levels of government is exactly the wrong strategy. Austrians, not surprisingly, believe that this explanation is nonsense, and dangerous nonsense.

In a recent column, Krugman lays out his thesis, and it is useful, for it truly exposes the Keynesian mind at work, and a Keynesian mind that allows for no other explanations as to what is happening. The problem is — and always will be — a lack of "aggregate demand," and the only solution is for governments to spend as though they have hit the jackpot.

He writes,

The great housing bubble of the last decade, which was both an American and a European phenomenon, was accompanied by a huge rise in household debt. When the bubble burst, home construction plunged, and so did consumer spending as debt-burdened families cut back.

Everything might still have been O.K. if other major economic players had stepped up their spending, filling the gap left by the housing plunge and the consumer pullback. But nobody did. In particular, cash-rich corporations see no reason to invest that cash in the face of weak consumer demand.

Nor did governments do much to help. Some governments — those of weaker nations in Europe, and state and local governments here — were actually forced to slash spending in the face of falling revenues. And the modest efforts of stronger governments — including, yes, the Obama stimulus plan — were, at best, barely enough to offset this forced austerity.

So we have depressed economies. What are policy makers proposing to do about it? Less than nothing.

If anything describes the Keynesian mindset, it is this: spend, spend, spend. It is a simple thesis, one that certainly appeals to politicians, and even to much of the general public, and has dominated professional economic thinking in the United States since World War II. As Krugman states above, households cannot spend what they don't have, and businesses, because they don't see future demand, are not going to invest (read: spend through capital investment — which is always defined by Keynesians as being valuable because of spending, not because of any aspects of capital productivity).

So we are stuck in what Krugman and Keynesians call a "liquidity trap," which Krugman seems to believe ends all other discussion. The notion is that the law of opportunity cost is suspended during a liquidity trap because interest rates are low, resources are "idle," and government can borrow at nearly 0 percent and spend without consuming any resources. As Krugman said in his book The Return of Depression Economics, government spending in this situation can create a "free lunch." (Yes, he actually used that term.)

While most mainstream economists are not willing to engage the Keynesians on the idea of the "liquidity trap," Murray Rothbard did not back away. In his book, America's Great Depression, he takes on the whole notion of the "liquidity trap" head on, writing,

The ultimate weapon in the Keynesian arsenal of explanations of depressions is the "liquidity trap." This is not precisely a critique of the Mises theory, but it is the last line of Keynesian defense of their own inflationary "cures" for depression. Keynesians claim that "liquidity preference" (demand for money) may be so persistently high that the rate of interest could not fall low enough to stimulate investment sufficiently to raise the economy out of the depression.

Rothbard points out a serious problem with that analysis, noting that Keynes never got the theory of interest correct, claiming interest is based on "'liquidity preference' instead of time preference," which then leads to more incorrect conclusions about the state of the economy. Other Austrians have criticized the theory, as well, including William Hutt and Henry Hazlitt.

Both Hutt and Hazlitt took on the whole idea of "idle resources," which is behind the notion that opportunity cost can be suspended during a depression. The idea of idle resources is based on a notion that factors of production are unemployed because of a lack of spending, and that a burst of government borrowing (at nearly zero, which means almost no opportunity cost) will spread to these unemployed assets and put them back to work.

As I noted before, the Keynesian theory is disarmingly simple. Resources are unemployed, so government "stimulates" the economy through more spending; the resources are put to work, and somehow the economy magically sustains itself. On the flip side, Keynesians hold that if new spending does not occur, then deflation will result, making more resources unemployed until ultimately the economy is in a perverse equilibrium in which huge numbers of people are out of work with no prospects for economic improvement.

Read all of it.

Peaceful Anarchy: Imagine A Society Without the State

by Gary D. Barnett
LewRockwell.com

"I am an anarchist. I suppose you came here, the most of you, to see what a real, live anarchist looked like. I suppose some of you expected to see me with a bomb in one hand and a flaming torch in the other, but are disappointed in seeing neither. If such has been your ideas regarding an anarchist, you deserved to be disappointed. Anarchists are peaceable, law-abiding people. What do anarchists mean when they speak of anarchy? Webster gives the term two definitions – chaos and the state of being without political rule. We cling to the latter definition. Our enemies hold that we believe only in the former." ~ Lucy Parsons

"If we look at the record of mass murder, exploitation, and tyranny levied on society by governments over the ages, we need not be loath to abandon the Leviathan State and … try freedom." ~ Murray N. Rothbard

Anarchy in its purest form is based on peaceful behavior and voluntaryism in a stateless society, while government is based on aggression, theft, force, and deceit. These two systems are completely opposite. The only moral social system worth having has to adhere to the ideas of non-aggression, private property, free and voluntary exchange, and self-responsibility. This ideology is based entirely on the individual as sovereign. A political order where the individual is not sovereign, such as what we have now in this country, is the type of system that eventually leads to tyranny and serfdom. We are already far along in that process.

In my opinion, peaceful anarchy as a near perfect social system must go unchallenged, because anarchy is based on the truism that the individual is sovereign. Philosophically, anarchy is the only workable system if freedom is the desired goal. All other political systems are based on a top-down structure, with those in charge holding power over all others. This type of structure, which is our current political system, is simply one of force, and force is the antithesis of liberty.

While to me this seems to be not only simple but also logical, to most others this thinking is blasphemous. The mere mention of anarchy causes grave reactions from those from the "elite" class to the common laborer. No one it seems understands the simple concept of anarchy, and certainly can’t grasp the concept of anarchy as a viable social system. This says a lot about the "success" of the government indoctrination prisons called "public" schools. Obviously, the worship and acceptance of the State is now the primary driver in the American thought process. This is unfortunate.

Those who believe that anarchy is chaos without justice fail to understand that anarchists simply want to be left alone. The fact that they want to be left alone should naturally convey that they also don’t want to infringe upon the liberty of others. Self-rule means that one’s life is directed from within instead of being controlled from without. This concept should not be foreign to any man who desires to enjoy a free life. But it is this simple notion that escapes so many.

Obviously, simple humans are a mixture of good and bad, so believing that a stateless society will remedy all ills is silly. The idea of anarchy assumes that most will not aggress against others, and that voluntary cooperation will be a primary factor for success. This of course seems impossible given our circumstances today, but any critical thought should help to relieve the fears of most.

If we all were self-reliant and self sufficient, if no forced welfare existed, if taxation was abolished, if positive law was not a part of society, would the manner of men change? If no standing armies were allowed, would wars cease? If the only act of force tolerated were for self-defense, would crime lessen? If none could benefit at the expense of another, would cooperation replace extortion? If no man ruled another, would there be incentive for peaceful and voluntary behavior? In my view, the answer to all these questions is a resounding yes! Would this kind of society be perfect … Of course not, because people are not perfect. No societal system can be perfect. But a system without the state would at least offer us the best chance for a long and peaceful existence, and one without the chains of governmental tyranny.

Our society has long been force-fed the propaganda that we cannot survive and prosper without the State. Our training in such matters begins at a very early age and continues throughout our lives. The transformation from a somewhat free society to our current one of servitude has taken a long time, but it has happened nonetheless. Now, most in this country are knowingly or unknowingly dependent on the government in one fashion or another, but many more thrive exclusively on government largess, and due to government protectionist practices. Did this happen accidentally or did it happen by design? I think the latter is the obvious answer to this question.

Given that the masses of people in this country believe so strongly in "their" government, what has that government done to deserve this confidence? What has the state brought us? What has been accomplished due to our political system these past two hundred plus years?

• Standing armies
• Continuous war and mass murder
• Massive progressive taxation
• State-sponsored welfare
• Eminent Domain
• Central banking and the Federal Reserve
• Destruction of our money
• The "War on Drugs"
• The largest prison system in the world with the highest incarceration rate
• Government schooling
• FDA
• EPA
• TSA
• NSA
• CIA
• FBI
• USA PATRIOT Act
• Military Commissions Act
• Killer Drones
• Guantanamo Bay
• Torture
• Rendition
• Police brutality
• Imperialism
• Wiretapping and spying
• Illegal searches
• Bailouts
• Monopoly
• Recessions
• Depressions

I could of course go on and on as this is a partial list, but I think the picture is clear. If this is what the State produces, how could a stateless society be worse? As I see things, it could not! Just imagine how different life would be if all the horrible things mentioned above were removed from our society. Imagine peace? Imagine a country of non-aggressive individuals working strictly through voluntary efforts? Imagine that all your property, including your own body, is yours and yours alone to do with as you see fit? Just imagine?

Murray N. Rothbard was one of the staunchest defenders of a stateless society, and presented here a great argument for anarchism as a social system. Once those skeptical souls who hunger for authority instead of freedom are shown the way to clear those imaginary anarchy hurdles, progress has a chance to flourish. This is no easy task, but if enough are shown the way, could it happen? Could it be successful? I think that it could, but major obstacles would first have to be removed.

The obstacles I speak of are those that allow one to prosper at the expense of another. If all government forced welfare were eliminated, all would then be forced to take care of themselves and their own. This alone would make a huge difference in the minds of the masses. Immediately, self-reliance and self-responsibility would become necessary for life to continue. When the majority of society is self-responsible, liberty is the natural result, and becomes the driving force of that society.

Accepting the idea of sovereignty of the individual brings much responsibility, but that responsibility leads to a freer society. A freer society leads to a society based upon voluntary cooperation. Voluntary cooperation is the basis for free markets. Voluntary cooperation and free markets leads directly to prosperity.

It is time to break the chains of government and try freedom. It is time to throw off rule by the few for rule by self. Government has failed and failed miserably every time it has been tried. Why then continue along this path of failure? Why continue to allow rule over of the many by the few?

A stateless society has not the power to destroy the individual. I say abolish the State!

Middle classes to be hit by tax increase by the back door

You can't justify a massive power grab if you've got too many people who can sustain themselves independent of government. That is why the policy is to destroy the middle class, and create a gaping chasm between the ultra-rich elite and the destitute poor. And if you think that sounds absurd, that is precisely what's happening: the middle class is being annihilated. Been going on for a long time, and yet here we see that the middle class again will be hammered by this new debt deal. So I ask you: what do their actions tell you? Are crippling taxes on the middle class in the middle of an economic crisis indicative of a policy intending to strengthen and expand the middle class?

Daily Mail -

Obama and Boehner face furious backlash from their own parties as last minute debt deal is slammed a 'fudge'

• Democrats fear further spending cuts while Republicans say deal is just a means of raising taxes at a later stage by joint committee
• Frantic behind the scenes lobbying expected to get lawmakers on the fringes of both parties to support deal
• Experts fear credit rating will still be downgraded
• Furious public backlash on Twitter
• Deal slammed a 'sugar-coated Satan sandwich'
• Obama: Debt deal will end crisis and remove cloud over the economy
• Agreement will cut about $1trillion over 10 years

  President Barack Obama awoke today to furious reaction to his last-minute debt deal, with experts slamming the agreement as a cruel means of hitting middle classes with tax hikes 'through the back door'.
  
  The President and congressional leaders last night finally announced an agreement on emergency legislation to avert the nation's first-ever financial default.
  
  But while the dramatic resolution briefly lifted a cloud that had threatened the still-fragile economic recovery, critics said in the long run the middle classes would bear the brunt of the country's massive debt, with increased taxes set to cover for the White House's reluctance to cut public spending.

Read it all.

U.S. manufacturing drops to lowest level in two years

Not even news of a debt deal that allegedly saved Amurr'ca from total annihilation could overcome the grim reality that our economy is in total collapse, and no amount of borrowing can save it - even if borrowing money to pay debt were a sound economic policy. If we don't produce anything for other countries to buy, and everything we're buying comes from China...do you hear that giant sucking sound? That's all of our wealth being sucked from our country. Or, a giant balloon being deflated. It's all over but the shouting, folks. You can give up and be the victim, or you can take control and persevere.

Yahoo News -

The Dow Jones industrial average is sinking after a key manufacturing index dropped sharply in July.

The Dow is down 58 points, or 0.5 percent, to 12,085 shortly after the manufacturing report came out at midmorning. It had been up as much as 139 points.

The Institute of Supply Management said its manufacturing index fell to 50.9. That was barely above the 50 point figure that indicates growth. Economists had been expecting a much higher reading of 55.

The Dow rallied in early trading Monday after President Barack Obama and Congressional leaders announced that they had reached a deal to raise the nation's borrowing limit ahead of a Tuesday deadline. The deal must still get passed in Congress.

As America Continues to Tank, What Will You Do?

The Daily Bell -

Over the course of the past dozen or so years I have had the pleasure of rubbing shoulders with some of the more savvy free-market thinkers around. And during much of that time, my own formulative views of the word have tended to ebb and flow as I processed information from a variety of sources, most importantly my own real-life experiences.

One of those free-thinkers who had a big impact on me was Harry Browne. We all suffered a great loss when Harry passed away a few years ago, but his message of how people could obtain personal freedom in an unfree world is as powerful and relevant today as it was when Harry wrote the book on that in 1973.

It is very easy for all of us to become mesmerized by the blitzkrieg of information that seems to constantly invade our minds. It is so overpowering at times that, without proper discipline, one can find himself missing out on the joys of life and dwelling only in darkness. And that is not a healthy way to go through life. Harry understood that – better than most.

The only true commodity of scarcity is time. And the only time that truly matters is yours and mine. Each of us has an expiry date and what we do with our time between the two goal posts should be left to each person to determine in their personal pursuit of self-interest.

Now obviously there are some basic "rules to the road" that determine how people should interact in a functional civil society. Personally, Richard Maybury has done the best job I know of reducing it down to a managable number – two. That's it, two simple natural laws that make it very easy for anyone to discipline himself before taking action. Here they are:

1) Do all you say you are going to do.

2) Do not encroach on other persons or their property.

That's it folks. Two simple and easy to understand "rules" through which any person with an IQ above 50 should be able to navigate their way through life. The first law governs acts of contract and civil engagement, while the second deals with acts of a more criminal nature. But together, both cover the gammut of potentialities that we all face in our daily lives.

Understanding that self-interest and the pusuit of maximizing one's life does not conflict with either of these two natural laws is perhaps the first step in appreciating the power of a truly free society – one in which each person is his or her own master and determines how they wish to spend their time.

Today, for most people caught up in the daily struggle to maintain their heads above water, it is difficult to see how one can actually "break free" from a system that is anything but. And this was no different in 1973 when Harry wrote his bestselling book, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World.

When we are born, we are born free. As we grow older and are shepparded through public schools and out into the work force, we begin to face the realities of a centralized society – one that continually tries to collectivize people's time under a life-long bond to the State. It is as if there are fields full of gallows with fresh nooses swaying gently in the winds of time awaiting the necks of all the fresh blood entering the workforce. The heads slip in and the serpent-like noose fastens itself – for life. And once a person succumbs to the pressure, they lose their abilty to think. For who has time to think when one's life (time) is constantly being robbed by a collectivist State?

The answer is YOU. You do not have to accept the burdens being levied upon your shoulders by the "time-taxing" power elite and YOU CAN LIVE FREE. To do so is to remember that YOU WERE BORN FREE. It is your right to live free and die free too. Your life is yours to live and as long as the two natural laws mentioned above are respected and adherred to, your right to spend your time as you choose is yours and yours alone. The question you may be asking now is: How do I break free?

Please read it all.

Depression in Command

By "crisis", he means war. It takes a mentally disturbed man to effectively and remorselessly drop bombs on innocent people, to destroy water treatment plants and powdered milk factories, contaminate countries forever with radioactive weapons...to commit genocide. The author doesn't mention this, but by "mentally ill" he doesn't mean, like, really mentally ill, like Hitler or Mao. Hitler threw Jews and gypsies and homosexuals into ovens and gas chambers; Churchill killed three quarters of a million Germans indirectly, and is hailed as a hero for it, or, at least, justified and apologized for it.

Sarcasm aside, it is difficult to know for sure if people like Nassir Ghaemi are willing shills for the State, or just too intoxicated by decades of grotesque propaganda, pseudo history, exceptionalism and lies to know better. For while there are those who willingly lie for the government, there are those in and out of the establishment who believe the State is deity. I think if precedent has established anything, it's that what we've had is an unbroken (except possibly for Kennedy) string of mentally ill leaders who've led us to complete and utter ruin. But what's really mentally disturbed is that people somehow think there's any sanity to the way the world is governed today, or for the past hundred years for that matter.

Wall Street Journal -

When times are good and the ship of state only needs to sail straight, mentally healthy people function well as political leaders. But in times of crisis and tumult, those who are mentally abnormal, even ill, become the greatest leaders. We might call this the Inverse Law of Sanity.

Consider Neville Chamberlain. Before the Second World War, he was a highly respected businessman from Birmingham, a popular mayor and an esteemed chancellor of the exchequer. He was charming, sober, smart—sane.

Winston Churchill, by contrast, rose to prominence during the Boer War and the first World War. Temperamental, cranky, talkative, bombastic—he bothered many people. During the "wilderness" years of the 1930s, while the suave Chamberlain got all the plaudits, Churchill's own party rejected him.

When not irritably manic in his temperament, Churchill experienced recurrent severe depressive episodes, during many of which he was suicidal. Even into his later years, he would complain about his "black dog" and avoided ledges and railway platforms, for fear of an impulsive jump. "All it takes is an instant," he said.

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U.S. Auto Sales Stall, Casting Doubt on Rebound

Bloomberg -

U.S. auto sales have stalled, casting doubt on a rebound this year as persistent unemployment and tighter lending deter buyers.

Light-vehicle deliveries in July, to be released tomorrow, may have run at an 11.8 million seasonally adjusted annual rate, the average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. That would trail the 12.5 million rate in the first half.

The auto industry may lose 1.5 million in projected sales in 2011, according to consultant AlixPartners LLP. The economy isn’t picking up as fast as anticipated, and the drag may continue beyond this year, AlixPartners said. That may put a return to average annual sales of 16.8 million vehicles from 2000 to 2007 out of reach. Unemployment reached the highest level this year in June.

“This curve of unemployment looks like it’s got a lot of legs,” Mark Wakefield, an AlixPartners director in Southfield, Michigan, said in a telephone interview. “This is one of the first recent cycles where demand is not going to go back above its prior peak, because there are just so many structural things that are different this time around.”

Read it all.

6 Ways Food is Being Used as a Weapon

Activist Post -

Hungry people will do anything for food, which means that those who have control over food can use it as leverage. In 1974, Henry Kissinger suggested using food as a weapon to induce targeted population reduction in a previously classified 200-page report, National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests. The primary tactic to be applied is that food aid would be withheld from developing nations until they submitted to birth control policies:

There is also some established precedent for taking account of family planning performance in appraisal of assistance requirements by AID [U.S. Agency for International Development] and consultative groups. Since population growth is a major determinant of increases in food demand, allocation of scarce PL 480 resources should take account of what steps a country is taking in population control as well as food production. In these sensitive relations, however, it is important in style as well as substance to avoid the appearance of coercion.

So, food was to be used as just another method of imperial colonization to force countries to conform their policies to those desired by the controllers. Notably, this tactic only works as a blunt weapon on territories enduring a severe economic collapse and with little resources for food production. Today, however, it appears that the entire globe is receiving an arsenal of food bombs as there appears to be a multifaceted attack on people's access to food. In other words, what has been an admitted tactic for nearly 40 years of controlling food aid for regional population reduction has now grown more complex and expansive.

Because of massive corporate consolidation of agriculture, centrally coordinated global regulations, a devalued commodity-dollar and unrestrained commodity speculation, chemical and genetic modification, and real or manipulated food shortages; there is indeed a war being waged -- with food as the primary weapon. Understand, this is a not purely a war on food, but rather a war on the general population. Therefore, it is crucial to understand these tactics in order to defend against them.

Here are six ways food is being used to wage war against the population:

1. Food inflation: Crippling food inflation is now affecting every corner of the world with the poorest feeling the worst pangs. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) food price index increased by 3 points to 234 points in June – a 39% increase on the year. These increases are causing mass starvation and rioting in many poor regions of the world, but they are also beginning to punish the middle-class in the Industrialized nations. The price of food is inflating primarily because of a devalued commodity-dollar from excessive money printing and Wall Street commodity speculation. Perhaps it's more appropriate to call it commodity manipulation, not speculation. As William Engdahl recently pointed out: "The ability to manipulate the price of essential foods worldwide at will -- almost irrespective of today’s physical supply and demand for grains -- is quite recent....Up until the grain crisis of the mid-1970s there was no single 'world price' for grain, the benchmark for the price of all foods and food products."

What fuels commodity speculation is not just the obvious decline of the dollar and a flight to something tangible, but also genuine supply concerns based on a variety of factors that cause crop shortages like extreme weather or disease. Regardless of real or manipulated food shortages, food prices will continue to rise because of increased demand and an incrementally weaker dollar. Luckily, there are many ways to protect yourself from food inflation and the food war in general.

2. Shortages: Through supply controls, food shortages have been used as a weapon to create regional conflicts, to encourage peacekeeping missions, and as a foreign policy carrot -- as clearly outlined in Kissinger's 1974, Memorandum 200. The most recent examples can be found with the current and ongoing negotiations with North Korea who perpetually holds a nuclear gun to the West's head in exchange for food. Somalia, who was food self-sufficient until the 1970s, has become a "failed state" because of food shortages. Significantly, the situation in Somalia and other large-scale famine are usually caused by a manipulated economic collapse. In fact, many have reported that the lack of food was an underlying factor of the Egyptian revolution.

Because of corporate consolidation of staple crops such as corn, soybeans, and wheat -- and the central control of food aid -- it is now easy to manipulate food shortages. But, clearly, there are also catastrophic weather events that destroy production in entire regions such as the heat wave in Russia last summer that caused them to restrict wheat exports in what some referred to as food wars. Many countries who had contracts with Russia were not happy, and their protectionist move had global effects on the food prices. In other words, imminent food shortages are typically a localized problem, but because the food system is so interconnected, local problems now affect the global community.

3. Chemical Additives: Chemical additives, from pesticides to preservatives, can only be viewed as a weapon in the depopulation agenda. Clearly, laboratory-concocted chemicals were never meant for human consumption. Therefore, they can only be attributed to an effort to deliberately and slowly poison the population. Many food and drink toxins like fluoride, aspartame, or monosodium glutamate (MSG) are now well-known to have negative health effects. Other lab creations like high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) are also beginning to prove very unhealthy with tests showing mercury in corn syrup. Incidentally, we dare you to find any sweet food that doesn't contain either aspartame or HFCS. Even wholesome Campbell's Tomato soup has HFCS, as does Heinz ketchup -- while nearly every candy or gum contains aspartame. It's estimated that the average American consumes 12 teaspoons of HFCS per day, while the younger population consumes nearly double that. "Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered," said Dr. David Wallinga of the Agriculture and Trade Policy whose study found about a third of brand-name foods with HFCS had measurable amounts of mercury.

Pesticides fall into the chemical additive category -- GM pesticides especially (called Bt toxins). They are found in the blood stream of nearly all North Americans, and even in 80% of their unborn babies. It is presumed these toxins are acquired by eating genetically modified corn or soy, and from the livestock that feed on it. A recent study proved that the chemical found in best-selling pesticides, glyphosate, causes birth defects among other ailments. We must understand that although all of these toxins, and a host of others, are approved for consumption by the FDA, it doesn't make them safe. And even the ones that have exotic names but have yet to be proven to have ill effects surely have a cumulative impact on human health. They're so pervasive that it seems impossible to evade them, but there are still ways to eat like a human.

4. Regulations: By restricting food freedom, regulatory agencies purposely increase dependence on the Big Ag monopoly cartel that fully controls the basic building blocks of food. Simply put, those who control the corn, wheat, soybeans and rice, control all food, since all livestock and all processed foods are dependent on those food sources. In America, and increasingly around the world, this cartel places their cronies in government regulatory agencies like the USDA to weed out their competition through excessive regulation. Furthermore, this restriction of food freedom is happening in concert across the globe, precisely because it is a top-down globalist initiative driven by international regulatory agencies such as the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. It is a complex, interwoven agenda that takes into account everything from health safety to land use rights in order to force independent food producers to conform in ways that only benefit a global corporate structure. Regulatory agencies are one of the primary weapons deployed against independent living.

5. Genetic Modification: There are many reasons to avoid eating genetically modified food, from health concerns to supporting a fundamentally evil food cartel. Genetically modified foods are the path to monopolies over human life through patented technology and environmental destruction by chemical-heavy monoculture practices. GMOs are so pervasive in the United States that it is estimated that 70% of the average American diet contains them. Many European countries, and other regions, have rejected GMOs. Hungary recently destroyed illegal GM corn crops and plans to make distributing seeds a felony offense. However, because of corporate/political pressure, most resistant countries are being forced to adopt them. All of this despite the fact that environmental infection and contamination are proven effects of transgenic plants. Meanwhile, the control is being implemented under convoluted patent laws, where the mutation itself signifies originality and control over the natural organism it imitates.

6. The Weather: Weather undeniably affects food access and food costs. One glance at maps across the globe reveals that food production areas are being especially hard hit, and we are seeing prices rise accordingly. These natural events can be exploited both by speculators and governments. However, with the introduction of weather modification, invested in by those such as Bill Gates and openly promoted by elite globalist think tanks, concerns have been raised over the possibility that governments could use weather as a deliberate weapon to create food wars. Accusations have already been leveled charging exactly that. While some might dismiss the various possibilities of "steering the weather" for malevolent purposes as conspiracy, it is much more difficult to ignore the 1996 document presented to the Air Force titled Owning the Weather 2025 (PDF), which explicitly states as a heading on page 10: Applying Weather-modification to Military Operations. One key section states that weather control could be virtual, as well as literal:

Offensive abilities could provide spoofing options to create virtual weather in the enemy's sensory and information systems, making it more likely for them to make decisions producing results of our choosing rather than theirs. It would also allow for the capability to mask or disguise our weather-modification activities.
[...]
[...]Also key to the feasibility of such a system is the ability to model the extremely complex nonlinear system of global weather in ways that can accurately predict the outcome of changes in the influencing variables.
[...]
Conceivably, with enough lead time and the right conditions, you could get “made-to-order” weather.

This would certainly be the ultimate endgame for anyone wishing to use food as a weapon of control and profit. This possibility should not be easily dismissed, but rather it warrants open-minded investigation and research.

As we can see, food control is full spectrum, with wars being declared on the individual, states, and sovereign nations simultaneously. Food controllers utilize health, politics, and economics to integrate their agenda. Only full spectrum solutions can be employed as protection. There is much hope to be offered through alternative markets, barter systems, and local co-ops. We welcome your thoughts in the comments section below about other creative ideas we can implement to preserve our independence.

"True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made." -- Franklin Roosevelt

Big Pharma looks to capitalize on success of vitamin D by turning it into a 'drug' for kidney disease

It can never be stressed enough: only an FDA-approved drug can cure or treat disease. At least, that's what the law says. It took them a while to figure out, but now they will patent vitamin D for distribution for profit at pharmaceutical prices.

As Codex Alimentarius is incrementally implemented, more and more of your vitamins and supplements will be declared drugs, and you will need a prescription for them. And even then, except for fluoride of course, most of those vitamins and supplements will be in doses so inadequate they're not even worth taking. This leaves you with but one choice: cultivate your own vitamins, naturally. Learn which fruits and vegetables give you the vitamins your body needs, and grow them organically. For Vitamin D, don't fear the sun. No matter how bad they tell you it is for you.

Natural News -

With an incredible success rate for vitamin D in treating a myriad of health conditions, it is no wonder that some drug companies are looking for new ways to capitalize on this natural, inexpensive nutrient.

Biopharmaceutical giant Rockwell Medical recently announced that it has acquired a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for a generic, injectable form of vitamin D called Calcitriol, that it openly refers to as a "drug."

Marketed under several brand names including Rocaltrol (Roche), Calcijex (Abbott), and Decostriol (Mibe, Jesalis), Calcitriol is really nothing more than vitamin D3, or 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol, that has been placed in a syringe with sterile fluids and other additives. And yet Rockwell Medical, as well as various medical information sources, refer to Calicitriol as a "drug," which is why Rockwell Medical obtained an ANDA in the first place.

Read it all.

If at First You Don't Get a Prison Sentence, Try, Try Again

Fire that Lee Greenwood back up. It just never gets old. And you probably think, who cares? He's a scumbag child porn freak. And you thought the same thing about the Patriot (sic) Act. Who cares if you're not a terrorist? Then they started using it in drug cases. Then against anti-war activists. And then we find out the NSA has a secret interpretation of the Patriot (sic) Act, one even more lose and vague than the original. Who knows who the victims are now? People who opposed Obamacare? Ron Paul supporters? You know..."terrorists".

Now all they have to do is leave it to the states to prosecute, so they get two shots at the suspect if the system doesn't uhhh work the way it's supposed to. The Soviets would be very proud.

Reason Magazine -

Two years ago Steven D. Ballinger of Collinsville, Illinois, was sentenced to two and a half years of probation in state court after he pleaded guilty to sexual abuse and child pornography charges stemming from his videotaped encounter with a 12-year-old girl in July 2006, when he was 26. Last Friday he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the same crime, this time in federal court. A federal prosecutor explained that U.S. Attorney Steve Wigginton was "very offended by what he perceived as an extremely lenient sentence for this type of crime."

While Wigginton's reaction is understandable, do we want to let prosecutors try a defendant again whenever they think he got off too lightly the first time around? Isn't that sort of serial prosecution barred by the Fifth Amendment's Double Jeopardy Clause? Not, according to the Supreme Court, if it involves two different levels of government. According to the "dual sovereignty" doctrine, even though Ballinger pleaded guilty to the same crime (producing child pornography) both times, the fact that it was a state offense the first time and a federal offense the second time means the Double Jeopardy Clause does not apply. In fact, even if Ballinger had been acquitted in state court he still could have been convicted in federal court. Or if he had received a 30-year sentence in state court, he could have received another 30-year sentence in federal court.

Read it all.

Nasa warns solar flares from 'huge space storm' will cause devastation

I've been focusing a lot on economic apocalypse lately. A lot of people are also watching space. Particularly our sun. Ironically, 2012 also happens to be an important year in terms of solar activity. Prepare for all eventualities.

London Telegraph -

National power grids could overheat and air travel severely disrupted while electronic items, navigation devices and major satellites could stop working after the Sun reaches its maximum power in a few years.

Senior space agency scientists believe the Earth will be hit with unprecedented levels of magnetic energy from solar flares after the Sun wakes “from a deep slumber” sometime around 2013, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

In a new warning, Nasa said the super storm would hit like “a bolt of lightning” and could cause catastrophic consequences for the world’s health, emergency services and national security unless precautions are taken.

Scientists believe it could damage everything from emergency services’ systems, hospital equipment, banking systems and air traffic control devices, through to “everyday” items such as home computers, iPods and Sat Navs.

Read all of it.

Park service to thin out Yosemite's growing crowds -- of trees

Guess they're not really worried about their carbon footprints. Let's cut down all the carbon dioxide-sucking trees so people can see the scenic vistas. And while the government - the real environmental criminals we insanely look to to protect the environment - is cutting down the trees that supposedly could help reduce global warming, they'll punish you for your supposed carbon footprint, triple your energy bills, and put you out on the street.

Los Angeles Times -

Thousands of younger pines and cedars will be cut down this fall to restore many of the park's original scenic vistas that in previous decades were managed by natural and controlled fires.


The granite walls of the Yosemite Valley are illuminated by stars and the moon on a clear winter night. The stand of evergreens at the base of the cliff would obscure such a view for most drivers and visitors.

National parks tend to be a tree hugger's paradise. Layers of federal laws, strict park service rules and even the disapproving scowls from some visitors prohibit so much as driving a nail into a tree, much less cutting one down.

But it's getting a bit crowded in Yosemite, where more than a hundred years of prompt firefighting have allowed towering pines and cedars to clog the park's meadows and valleys. These days, you can barely see the granite for the trees.

That's about to change. Yosemite National Park officials say thousands of trees will be felled to preserve the iconic views of the park's waterfalls and the craggy faces of El Capitan and Half Dome.

Read it all.

Police inquiry reveals violations in arrest, beating of videographer

I'm proud to be an Amurr'can...where at least I know I'm *cough...hack...spit...*

What did they do to this slob of a cop? They sent him on paid vacation.

Las Vegas Revue Journal -

A Las Vegas police officer under investigation for the videotaped beating of a man in March violated several Metropolitan Police Department policies, an internal investigation found.

Mitchell Crooks' complaint about officer Derek Colling's excessive force was sustained, Deputy Chief Gary Schofield said Friday.

The specific policy violations will not be released until the case is finalized.

Crooks, 36, received a letter from the Internal Affairs Bureau notifying him of the findings earlier this week.

He said he was pleasantly surprised.

"It seems like they're saying he was guilty, which is what I've been saying," Crooks said. "I really hope he gets fired."

Colling has been on paid suspension since April 1.

Everyone sing along!

Spending Has Collapsed, the Economy Is Next

At this point, there are only two factors to consider: will the economy continue its paced, gradual decline, or will it fall off a cliff and collapse suddenly and violently. That's about the only factor I can't predict, along with what, exactly, the government reaction will be once total collapse is realized.

SHTF Plan -

We’ve been warning about it since the beginning of this crisis – that consumers are simply not interested in spending money they don’t have. In the first quarter of 2011 the government attempted to convince us that the economy was growing at a slow, but steady, rate of 1.8%. This was used as evidence the economic recovery had taken hold.

President Obama and his administration specifically told us that a depression had been avoided:

We can safely say that we are no longer facing the potential collapse of our financial system and we’ve avoided the depression many feared.

President Barrack Obama – December 9, 2009

But today’s growth domestic product revisions suggest otherwise.

That 1.8% that convinced the average uninformed American economic activity had increased was nothing but a fabrication – a bold faced lie – and that’s official. The government revised that number to 0.4% – a significant difference. They were only off by about 75%.

Today, the government released it’s second quarter GDP numbers, and as was predicted in many alternative media circles, it’s a clear indication that things are turning for the worse. Karl Denninger weighs in:

Sorry guys, the clock has rung. It’s not ringing any more, it has rung and the spring-powered alarm has run out.
…
There is no recovery to speak of.

Four years into this the policies of the government and Fed have failed.

It gets worse:

“The price index for gross domestic purchases, which measures prices paid by U.S. residents, increased 3.2 percent in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 4.0 percent in the first Excluding food and energy prices, the price index for gross domestic purchases increased 2.6 percent in the second quarter, compared with an increase of 2.4 percent in the first.”
(source: US Dept. of Commerce)

Your standard of living is being shredded.

“Real personal consumption expenditures increased 0.1 percent in the second quarter, comparedwith an increase of 2.1 percent in the first.”
(source: US Dept. of Commerce)

Spending has effectively collapsed.

This puts into stark relief the reality of the government deficit spending – it is doing nothing more than covering up an economic Depression, and the so-called “exit plan” – that private consumption, investment and borrowing will “take the baton back” is not working.

Read it all.

'Growth Recession' Latest Bad News for Faltering US Economy

The newest term to the Newspeak dictionary: Growth Recession. Used to be that depression was the only economic term for a negative GDP. They didn't like that, so they started calling it a recession...you know, for those times when the economy is depressed but not depressed enough to call it a depression. It makes you feel better. Through all this, always keep in mind that over 40% of the GDP is government spending, which is not a domestic product. It's wealth redistribution. And even with all the government spending, there's barely a pulse.

CNBC -

In addition to all the other ignominy heaped upon the US economy comes the latest insult Friday—confirmation of a “growth recession” that foretells a long, ugly road ahead.

“Growth recession” is a term that means the economy actually is growing but not at a fast enough pace to head off rising unemployment, which is at 9.2 percent and trending higher.

The term was unleashed Friday by Deutsche Bank economist Joseph LaVorgna, who said the government’s latest reading on the economy showing just a 1.3 percent gain in gross domestic product in the second quarter is ominous in more ways than one.

“The disappointing Q2 GDP results and downward revisions to the prior three quarters lead us to believe that this (growth recession) indeed is the case,” LaVorgna wrote in an analysis.

Read it all.

Layoffs May Worsen if Economic Growth Doesn't Pick Up

You might as well say something like, the sky may turn blue once the sun rises. Because as sure as the sun rises every day, economic growth will not pick up. How can it?

A service sector economy is completely unsustainable, because it doesn't create wealth. If we don't produce anything, where does the money come from? All of our goods are created in China, and therefore that's where all our wealth is going. If it's not coming back in from somewhere, then sooner or later we run out of it. Common sense enough for you?

The only source at that point is the Fed's printing presses, which devalues the currency and causes prices to rise. Where does the money come from; where do the jobs come from, especially when Obama's jobs czar, Jeffery Immelt, who is also the CEO of General Electric, is shipping tens of thousands of jobs to China? When Hummers are now made in Brazil? Who can grow enough to hire people when there's no money left, or when the money they do have can't counter inflation? This is so fundamental.

CNBC -

Thousands of layoffs were announced in just the past week, and that trend could continue if economic growth does not start to pick up speed.

Merck [MRK 34.13 -0.80 (-2.29%) ] on Friday became the latest company to announce a new round of job cuts, saying it would trim 13,000 employees from its work force of 91,000 by 2015. It joins HSBC, which is reported to be trimming 10,000 jobs from its global staff, and Borders, letting go another 10,700 workers, as it shuts down all of its retail stores.

"These heavy cuts are a sign the economy is stalling. The GDP numbers back it up. This is a concrete result of what you get when you see GDP stalling under 2 percent, like we've seen for two consecutive quarters," said John Challenger, CEO of Challenger Gray and Christmas, which monitors layoffs.

"It's across the board industries. It's not like the auto sector or something doing poorly. We are seeing pharmaceuticals; defense; retailers - in terms of Borders; and financial firms - in terms of Goldman..It's so very broad-based and it certainly poses a risk to the economy turning around, as people lose their jobs, and a lot of consumers who support these companies lose their jobs," he said.

It's all over but the shouting. Read it all.

Data Show Deeper US Recession, Sharper Slowdown

I've been telling people for a long time: if they admitted how bad things were, too many people might be tempted to go off the grid, which is the only way to shelter yourself from the storm in progress, the eye still approaching. Why does it matter to them that you stay dependent on the grid? Because attached to the grid, you're increasingly dependent, especially as the grid collapses, and you don't bite the hand that feeds. They need to rob you of all your wealth and means to sustain yourself, so that when the grid collapses they, the people who created the crisis, can throw their solution at you. And they won't shove it down your throat; you'll be so desperate at that point that you'll beg them to do something.

CNBC -

The "Great Recession" was even greater than previously thought, and the U.S. economy has skated uncomfortably close to a new one this year.

New data on Friday showed the 2007-2009 U.S. recession were much more severe than prior measures had found, with economic output declining a cumulative of 5.1 percent instead of 4.1 percent.

The report also showed the current slowdown began earlier and has been deeper than previously thought, with growth in the first quarter advancing at only a 0.4 percent annual pace.

The data indicated the economy began slowing in the fourth quarter of last year before high gasoline prices and supply chain disruptions from Japan's earthquake had hit, suggesting the weakness is more fundamental and less temporary than economists had believed.

Read it all.

GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, The Head Of Obama’s Jobs Council, Is Moving Jobs And Economic Infrastructure To China

It's not really difficult to figure out where things are going. On the one hand, you could learn economics. On the other, you can just look at what they're doing, blatantly, to destroy the economy. I don't know about you, but when the head of the president's Jobs Council is shipping jobs to China, that says to me that economic recovery and growth is not the agenda. Economic ruin and depression is. But that's just me.

The Economic Collapse -

Jeffrey Immelt, the head of Barack Obama's highly touted "Jobs Council", is moving even more GE infrastructure to China. GE makes more medical-imaging machines than anyone else in the world, and now GE has announced that it "is moving the headquarters of its 115-year-old X-ray business to Beijing". Apparently, this is all part of a "plan to invest about $2 billion across China" over the next few years. But moving core pieces of its business overseas is nothing new for GE. Under Immelt, GE has shipped tens of thousands of good jobs out of the United States. Perhaps GE should change its slogan to "Imagination At Work (In China)". If the very people that have been entrusted with solving the unemployment crisis are shipping jobs out of the country, what hope is there that things are going to turn around any time soon? (Read More....)

First Quarter Growth Revised: 0.4%

The original data was 1.9%. So what will the second quarter's 1.3% GDP be revised to next quarter? Now would be a good time to detach your ass from the couch and go prepare for an inflationary depression.

CNBC -

The U.S. economy grew less than expected in the second quarter as consumer spending barely rose, and growth braked sharply in the prior quarter, a government report showed on Friday.

Growth in gross domestic product—a measure of all goods and services produced within U.S. borders—rose at a 1.3 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said.

First-quarter output was sharply revised down to a 0.4 percent pace from 1.9 percent.

Economists had expected the economy to expand at a 1.8 percent rate in the second quarter.

In addition, fourth-quarter growth was revised down to a 2.3 percent pace from 3.1 percent, indicating that the economy had already started slowing before the high gasoline prices and supply chain disruptions from Japan hit.

Read all of it.

Ron Paul: Default is coming

Real Clear Politics -

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) explains why default by inflation is worse than default by not raising the debt ceiling.

Rep. Paul also talks about how the devaluing of the U.S. has led to record prices in gold bullion.

"Default is coming. The only argument that's going on now is how to default, not send the checks out or just print the money. In all countries our size, they always print the money," Paul said.

"They're going to raise the debt limit, and then they're going to print the money, and then they'll default by inflation, and that's much more dangerous than facing up to the facts of what's happening today."

White House threatens take extra-Constitutional action to avoid default

Welcome to the dictatorship.

Bill Would Force Intel Chief to Renounce ‘Secret Patriot Act’

Wait...what's this? A secret Patriot Act?! Well I'm sure it's fine, because Americans would never illegally persecute their own people. And besides, who cares? You aren't doing anything wrong, are you?

Wired -



For months, two Senators have screamed bloody murder that the government holds a secret legal interpretation of the Patriot Act so broad that it amounts to a whole different law giving the feds massive domestic surveillance powers. Now, a measure by Sens. Ron Wyden and Mark Udall would force the U.S. intelligence chief, and by extension the entire intelligence community, to admit that they went too far in their Patriot Act interpretations — if they don’t find a way to wiggle out of it.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence meets Thursday to prepare the annual bill authorizing the U.S. intelligence agency’s operations. During that “mark-up” process, Wyden and Udall will ask their colleagues to include a measure compelling the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General to produce a “detailed assessment of the problems posed by the reliance of government agencies” (.pdf) on “interpretations of domestic surveillance authorities that are inconsistent with the understanding of such authorities by the public.” Wyden’s staff provided Danger Room with a copy of the proposed amendment.

Specifically, Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper would have to produce “a plan for addressing such problems” with secret legal interpretations regarding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Patriot Act, the government’s two most important domestic spying laws.

Read it all.

Ghost towns on the increase as rural America accounts for just 16% of population

The policy is to herd everyone into mega-cities and shut off the rest of the country, so they know exactly where you are and you can't leave the quarantine zones. And if you think that's a quack conspiracy theory, you obviously have never heard of Agenda 21.

UK Daily Mail -
• Migration will form a virtual mega-city stretching through Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Baltimore, Maryland and ending in the capital Washington D.C.
• In 1910 72% of Americans lived in rural areas

  Vast swathes of the U.S. countryside are emptying and communities becoming ghost towns as rural America now only accounts for just 16 per cent of the population.
  
  The 2010 census results suggest that by 2050 many of these areas could shrink to virtually nothing as businesses collapse and schools close.
  
  This dramatic population implosion is the culmination of a century of migration to cities, as in 1910 the share of rural America was at 72 per cent.

  
  Blackout: This official graphic shows dominant U.S. urban areas, marked in white, while large swathes of rural areas are becoming darker as people move away

Read it all.

Economy growing at slowest pace since recession

These numbers are fake. Always remember: at least 40% of the GDP is government spending:

Yahoo News -

The economy likely grew in the first half of the year at the slowest pace since the recession ended, and the second half isn't looking much better.

Weak consumer spending, dismal hiring and cuts in government spending likely held back growth in the April-June quarter. The government will report on second-quarter growth on Friday.

Economists forecast the economy expanded at an annual rate of 1.7 percent, according to a FactSet survey. That follows a 1.9 percent (it's actually 1.3%) growth rate in the first three months of the year. Those are the slowest back-to-back quarters since the economy began recovering from the recession two years ago.

Read all of it.