Signs Public Schools Equivalent to Prisons, June 1 2011

The American Dream
In the United States today, our public schools are not very good at educating our students, but they sure are great training grounds for learning how to live in a Big Brother police state control grid.  Sadly, life in many U.S. public schools is now essentially equivalent to life in U.S. prisons.  Most parents don’t realize this, but our students have very few rights when they are in school.  Our public school students are being watched, tracked, recorded, searched and controlled like never before.  Back when I was in high school, it was unheard of for a police officer to come to school, but today our public school students are being handcuffed and arrested in staggering numbers.  When I was young we would joke that going to school was like going to prison, but today that is actually true.

The following are 18 signs that life in our public schools is now very similar to life in our prisons….

#1 Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has announced that school officials can search the cell phones and laptops of public school students if there are “reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up evidence that the student has violated or is violating either the law or the rules of the school.”

#2 It came out in court that one school district in Pennsylvania secretly recorded more than 66,000 images of students using webcams that were embedded in school-issued laptops that the students were using at home.

#3 If you can believe it, a “certified TSA official” was recently brought in to oversee student searches at the Santa Fe High School prom.

#4 A few years ago a class of 3rd grade students at one Kentucky elementary school were searched by a group of teachers after 5 dollars went missing.  During the search the students were actually required to remove their shoes and their socks.

#5 At one public school in the Chicago area, children have been banned from bringing their lunches from home.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Students at that particular school are absolutely prohibited from bringing lunches from home.  Instead, it is mandatory that they eat the food that the school cafeteria serves.

#6 The U.S. Department of Agriculture is spending huge amounts of money to install surveillance cameras in the cafeterias of public schools so that government control freaks can closely monitor what our children are eating.

#7 A teenager in suburban Dallas was recently forced to take on a part-time job after being ticketed for using bad language in one high school classroom.  The original ticket was for $340, but additional fees have raised the total bill to $637.

#8 It is not just high school kids that are being ticketed by police.  In Texas the crackdown extends all the way down to elementary school students.  In fact, it has been reported that Texas police gave “1,000 tickets” to elementary school kids over a recent six year period.

#9 A few months ago, a 17 year-old honor student in North Carolina named Ashley Smithwick accidentally took her father’s lunch with her to school.  It contained a small paring knife which he would use to slice up apples.  So what happened to this standout student when the school discovered this?  The school suspended her for the rest of the year and the police charged her with a misdemeanor.

#10 A little over a year ago, a 6 year old girl in Florida was handcuffed and sent to a mental facility after throwing temper tantrums at her elementary school.

#11 In early 2010, a 12 year old girl in New York was arrested by police and marched out of her school in handcuffs just because she doodled on her desk. “I love my friends Abby and Faith” was what she reportedly wrote on her desk.

#12 There are actually some public schools in the United States that are so paranoid that they have actually installed cameras in student bathrooms.

#13 Down in Florida, students have actually been arrested by police for bringing a plastic butter knife to school, for throwing an eraser, and for drawing a picture of a gun.

#14 The Florida State Department of Juvenile Justice has announced that it will begin using analysis software to predict crime by young delinquents and will place “potential offenders” in specific prevention and education programs.

#15 A group of high school students made national headlines a while back when they revealed that they were ordered by a security guard to stop singing the national anthem during a visit to the Lincoln Memorial.
#16 In some U.S. schools, armed cops accompanied by police dogs actually conduct surprise raids with their guns drawn.  In this video, you can actually see police officers aiming their guns at school children as the students are lined up facing the wall.

#17 Back in 2009, one 8 year old boy in Massachusetts was sent home from school and was forced to undergo a psychological evaluation because he drew a picture of Jesus on the cross.

#18 This year, 13 parents in Duncan, South Carolina were actually arrested for cheering during a high school graduation.

For many more signs that life in U.S. public schools is now essentially equivalent to life in U.S. prisons check out the short video posted below….

 

the Murder of America by its Hijacked Government, June 1 2011

The Excavator
Last week, the hijacked federal government treated Texas like Libya and Iraq, and acted in contempt of the people of Texas, the state legislature, and the U.S. constitution. Federal lawmakers used terrorism against Texas — just as it has against Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Libya — to make Texan representatives rethink their anti-TSA bill which classified unpopular and illegal TSA groping techniques as a criminal felony.

The nature of state terrorism is more subtle and deadly than the terrorism practiced by non-state groups.

U.S. state terrorists get what they want by blackmailing public representatives, deceiving the public and the press, and threatening lawmakers by resorting to legal and non-legal means. In Texas’s case, the Feds threatened to shutdown all air traffic in Texas and turn Texas into a pariah state if TSA agents were not given free reign to belittle the American people and violate their individual rights. Texas was not allowed to succeed in branding the TSA as deviant, abnormal, and alien to American principles.

Independence and resistance are forbidden both inside and outside the empire. Washington’s power elite consider state independence a crime, and freedom a nuisance. Domination and control are the key objectives of U.S. state policy, both foreign and domestic. They reach their objectives by lying to the American people, suppressing information, breaking the law, and shutting off debate. But, occasionally, terrorist tactics are used instead of other state methods when there is a pressing situation and tough action is required.

The threat to Texas was given on the grounds that the TSA is a necessary federal body that must be treated with awe and respect for the government to successfully wage its war against terrorism and maintain national security. But Washington’s argument is a farce because terrorism is being manufactured out of whole cloth.

The federal government itself is the biggest state sponsor of terrorism both within America and throughout the world.


America: Death By Deception

The murder of America by the state terrorists behind the new world order is almost complete. For several decades there has been a python around America, slowly squeezing out the life of its institutions, laws, and people. Once the python has done his job vultures will take over to eat away at what’s left of the rotting corpse.

The same government-created process of death and destruction is at work in other Western countries. Our collective destiny is being directed by a pack of traitorous elites who are operating based on the conclusion that the global population is a burden on the Earth’s resources and that a new global regime has to be set up covertly to facilitate the death of the masses.

After years of preparation and hard work, the Western ruling elite believe the time is finally right to transition the world to a new age in human civilization. The opinion that they are adults and masters of the human race is so ingrained in their mindset that they believe the people should be kept in the dark for their own good.

I did not always believe that mass global genocide was one of the hidden goals of U.S. state policy. It sounds crazy. But it is true. The controllers of the U.S. empire and the personalities calling for a new world order are authoritarian eugenicists who have a coherent world philosophy and view the people as sheep to be robbed, and slaughtered. I was afraid of being ridiculed for stating my opinion. But you have to be open-minded and follow the facts to their conclusion, even if the conclusion is gut-wrenching.

But we are not doomed. People become the victims of history and the playthings of people in power when they refuse to stand up for what is right and refrain from speaking the truth. Resistance is a matter of conscience and courage. As I wrote in my article “America: A State of Terror”:

Voices of resistance transform history, and help societies recover lost freedoms. All we have is our voice so we have to use it with determination. Those who don’t speak up about 9/11 and the high treason that is taking place will regret it later. The most powerful and peaceful means we have to resist tyranny and state evil are words. We must speak and write boldly.

The power to name and define reality is the government’s biggest power, but language lies beyond the scope of government. Civil society also has the power to do what people in government do everyday, which is give meaning to reality by using words, and branding individuals as “terrorists,” “traitors,” “patriots,” “conspiracy theorists,” etc.

When we let tyrants give meaning to world events like 9/11 we allow them to get away with murder and carry on with their agenda of destruction and control.


Rebranding The American Federal Government: Private Interests, Private Goals

The publicly stated rationale of all U.S. government action in the wake of the September 11 attacks masks the true, hidden rationale which is based on treasonous, irrational, criminal, private goals. In Washington the government has been hijacked by private central banks, the military-industrial complex, and corporate kingpins. They are the enemies of the public good, and national interest of every nation.

The U.S. constitution is being raped because it is viewed by the political elite in Washington as no longer being relevant as a system of codes and laws under a new globalist order, not because state officials have to be given the power to catch “evil terrorists” and protect the people.

The transnational police state has been built to be used to violently suppress political dissidents and maintain order during a time of epic crisis that is soon coming. This is not hard to understand. Political science is not rocket science. Armies that are trained and equipped with arms are eventually used to secure power and control for the people who pay them and feed them. The modern police in America and the West are no different. These toy soldiers have been turned into an occupying army and will be exploited to carry out the destructive will of their hidden masters.


Redefining Terrorism

Annamarie Oliverio, author of a great book called “The State of Terror,” says that terrorism is a basic tool of statecraft. The public instinctively avoids talking about the dark art of statecraft, but it exists, and it is mastered by the likes of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld who pride themselves on crossing over to the dark side. Oliverio writes:

Terrorist activity occurs daily, at different levels of analysis, especially within technologically advanced societies and societies whose structures, institutions, and organizations privilege hierarchy and domination. When terrorism is theoretically examined as a form of social control, fundamentally controlling apparatuses of the state may be viewed as terroristic. Organizations, groups, and individuals who legitimate the use of violence to achieve their goals may be viewed as products of, extensions of, or models of the essential structure of a state when its purpose is to regulate behavior via various forms of repression, domination, and terror. (1).

The myth that the modern, liberal, democratic state does not practice terrorism is regarded as a necessary myth by the power elite because it helps maintain the mental health of the population of these states. The catastrophic truth about 9/11 breaks this myth down, and threatens the mental health of the American people, as well as the people of other Western countries.

But, eventually, as more and more people come face to face with state terror, they will slowly pick up on the fact that the U.S. government is a terrorist state. This is where the TSA comes in. It is one of the “fundamentally controlling apparatuses of the state.” TSA agents are ugly, overbearing thugs. It is actually a good thing that people will come in personal contact with these creatures at airports, subways, and malls because they will grow to hate them, and get angry enough to protest the terrorist government and reclaim their rights.

According to Oliverio, we should “begin to re-think and re-react to constructs such as terrorism,” and “acknowledge our own participation, our own practice of power, in its definition,” (2). An essential part in the struggle against state terrorism and modern tyranny is defining terrorism in all its manifestations and naming things for what they are. Naming rights comes before human rights. The government cannot be allowed to name human beings “conspiracy theorists” for espousing certain political views because this is an attack on their right to free speech. It is a classic form of excommunicating political threats from society by people in authority.

Freedom does not exist if people are restricted from making their own definitions, and creating their own classifications. Luckily, there are already good academic and plain descriptions of state terrorism. The basic definition of state terrorism, from thefreedictionary.com:

Definition of state-sponsored terrorism: “terrorism practiced by a government against its own people or in support of international terrorism”
Definition of a terrorist act: “the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear”

“Explaining “why” certain action occurs,” writes Oliverio, “has become an important part in the process of establishing a collective definition of terrorist action.” Continued:

Such knowledge about terrorism (as well as other categories of deviance and social control) further shapes and is shaped by a wider institutional and societal order (Thomas et al 1987). In this regard Ericson, Baranek, and Chan (1987, 29), note that:

[T]he ideological labour of reproducing social, cultural, political, and economic order is not simply a matter of vacuous theorizing by academics interested in the political economy of the state. It is a matter of major concern to the state. . .

Scholarly explanations of terrorism, therefore, are central to the creation of laws and policies because they re-present similar “techniques of policing and moral brokerage,” as well as

direct or encourage journalists to work on behalf of the established order. Journalists are officially defined as crucial agents in the reproduction of order. . . an instrument for the defense of our identity as a nation. (Ericson, Baranek, and Chan 1987, 29 and 1991, 8)

It is not surprising that texts, whether they are generated by scholars, politicians, or news media, as the bearers of knowledge/power can be viewed as contributing to (and/or reproducing) social stratification, integration, social order, and, of course, hegemony. As such, “It is the organization of news, not events in the world, that creates news” (Ericson, Baranek, and Chan 1987, 345). (3).

This passage by Oliverio is so important because it emphasizes the role played by academic professionals like Philip D. Zelikow in the political construction of the false 9/11 story. The 1998 paper called “Catastrophic Terrorism: Elements of a National Policy,” by Zelikow, Ashton B. Carter, and John M. Deutch set the groundwork for the Bush administration to carry out 9/11 and enforce the ready-made narrative on a clueless and fearful public.

Another crucial aspect to understanding how state terrorism is kept hidden from the public is the role of language. The language of the state must conquer the language of civil society for the state terrorist to hide their deeds from the general public. Words like “conspiracy theory” and “crazy” are incredibly useful to the hijackers of America. They live and die on the classification of truth-tellers and whistleblowers as crazy and quacks.

The image that the state represents reason, knowledge, logic, rationality, and science can’t be unmasked because it shatters the division between “wacky conspiracy theorists” and “reality-based commentators.”

Oliverio says that the “dominant discourse that shapes contemporary knowledge and meaning on terrorism is a legacy of eighteenth- and nineteenth- century discourse of logic and reason,” (4). This was not done by accident. Science was hijacked by the State because science is a threat to power.

The only truly scientific minds of today are people like Niels Harrit, Steven E. Jones, Jeffrey Farrer, and others who are calling for a new 9/11 investigation. These individuals represent the scientific tradition because they are using the scientific method to challenge state power.

Moving Beyond The Age of “Conspiracy Theory” To A New Age of Free Speech And Public Debate
Freedom in America and the West was not killed by ruthless dictators, but clever wordsmiths. The murder of the American public mind by state myth-makers and propagandists with words like “conspiracy theorists” has meant easy sailing for the hijackers of America.

Many truths have been buried under the gravestone of “conspiracy theory” and it is our job to excavate them for the whole world to see.

I am concerned with the graveyard of minds, not so much the graveyard of bodies, because there haven’t been that many victims of U.S. state terror inside America. Maybe that will change.

Oliverio says that the power of rhetoric to form public perceptions of terrorist events is highly coveted by political elites and authoritarian states. Oliverio:

Examining terrorism as a discurisve practice in the art of statecraft reveals the inextricable link between terrorism and the production of power relations via the detailed descriptions, categorizations, and hierarchical organizations of contemporary society. It is a practice that privileges rhetorical language over direct experience. The value of analyzing terrorism as historically and contextually produced political discourse, rather than as essential human expression, is that it has the potential to be replaced by a more heuristic construct. (5).

To give meaning to an event like 9/11 through the use of words and images is to give mythic direction to the society. But it is a crooked direction, and the society is bound to get lost and disordered once people discover that they were betrayed.

Indoctrinating the people is easy at first but after a while new, bigger acts of terror have to be committed by the government. The course of total repression has to be taken to preserve the corrupt order. Most political elites are ruthless and gutsy enough to do what’s difficult and kill millions of people to keep the status quo as it is. Besides, they don’t have much of a choice. There is no turning back to sweet democracy and church bells after killing the people and betraying them. One you start to kill innocent people and commit acts of terror to advance a private agenda you have to finish the job or face the wrath of millions of people.

In most political systems people within the establishment turn out to be the biggest revolutionaries. A time comes when they begin to have second doubts about what they are part of. It takes a certain heart to rationalize mass death and mass deceit. That’s why only the psychopaths make it to the top in terroristic political systems.

In America, narcissists and elitist egoists like Clinton, Bush and Obama are proud of what they are doing. They don’t think of themselves as evil. In their minds, the state is beyond good and evil.

But what about the people who are not at the top of the power structure? Why do people at the bottom call others “conspiracy theorists” and “nuts” for raising ugly facts? Author Michael Tsarion talks often about the unseen dictatorship within the mind. Watch his lectures to learn about how people advance their own enslavement by submitting to the dictates of mass psychology instead of thinking for themselves.

Self-policing is much worse than the state police and media thought police. People who can’t even entertain the thought that 9/11 was an inside job are prohibiting debate within their own minds! That’s fascinating to me. They can’t even utter the truth under their breath because “only paranoid people believe 9/11 was an inside job.”

Oliverio says near the end of her book that public debate is absolutely necessary for societies to understand the origins of terrorism and get beyond political constructions of the worldwide phenomena. Oliverio:

Since the end of World War II, the United States has directed much propaganda against its enemies (domestic and international, real and imagined); but in the end such propaganda has done little to encourage any kind of permanent solution to the problem of “terrorism,” which it apparently seeks to eradicate. Furthermore, it has done so at the expense of the democratic process, which is supposed to foster competition among diverse understandings, ideas, and approaches to those ideas. Instead, the trend has been to encourage passive forms of collaboration from the mass constituency, increase autonomy of the executive from the legislature, as well as foster corresponding forms of representation based on such passivity (such as the “hero-villain” dichotomy) (Lumley and Schlesinger 1982). As Lumley and Schlesinger (1982, 622) remark on the elimination of terrorism, it is “something far more likely to occur through argument, discussion and open debate than through the counter-terror of the state,” and other societal (political) institutions that encourage “exorcistic rhetoric and demonology.” If “terrorism” indeed needs to be eradicated from society, then the eradication of orthodox perspectives and the forms those perspectives take appears to provide the most promising (if not crucial) avenue. (6).

Addressing the mass mental retardation represented by terms such as “conspiracy theories” is the first step towards opening up the debate on terrorism and reexamining the 9/11 events. The blockage of truth about 9/11 by the U.S.-Western media cannot be broken through unless people get over the psychological hurdles that exist within their minds.

Those of us who have gone over the hurdles must not get angry at the people behind us for being so slow. Anger is not an embracing emotion. But there is a place for anger. We should direct our anger at our political leaders in America, Canada, England, and the West who have betrayed the people and destroyed the rule of law.

Sources:
1. Annamarie Oliverio. “The State of Terror.” State University of New York Press: 1998. Pg. 27.
2. Oliverio. Pg. 137.
3. Oliverio. Pg. 32-33.
4. Oliverio. Pg. 33.
5. Oliverio. Pg. 127-128.
6. Oliverio. Pg. 137.

Investment Idea: Inflation, June 1 2011

I am not an investment adviser and this should not be taken as investment advice.

Washington’s Blog
What should we invest in?

Given the extreme uncertainty in the investing environment, and given that housing, employment and wages, and some of the other fundamental economic measures are flashing warning signs, this is not a simple question.

Inflation

I have written thousands of essays examining the great inflation versus deflation debate (here’s the latest).

I can see both sides of the argument, as well as arguments for inflation and deflation at the same time.

And see this essay by Shah Gilani on Chinese inflation.

If you believe that hyperinflation is in our future, then you might want to hear what PhD economist John Williams suggested in 2009:

Williams is advising people to stock up on gold and booze to bargain with once the hyperinflation makes dollars worthless:

“Three or four years into the future I think we could be in a hyperinflation, within the current year you’re going to see much higher inflation than most people are looking at,” Williams told MarketWatch.

Williams said that his definition of hyperinflation would be a situation in which a $100 dollar bill would become more functional as a piece of toilet paper than a store of value.

“This is a time when you want to preserve your wealth and assets because inflation will knock the value out of it,” he added, advising that people buy physical gold and assets other than the U.S. dollar.

“Then when the hyperinflation hits you’ll see disruption of normal commerce, you won’t have enough $100 dollar bills to buy what you want,” said Williams, adding that items to barter with, such as a bottle of scotch, would be more valuable than actual cash, even in large quantities.

Sake as a Japanese Luxury Good
There is some segment of the population that is always going to have a lot of disposable income, even in these times.

Indeed, the gap between the affluent and everyone else has been growing so fast that it is bigger than it has been since 1917 … before the Great Depression.

As Reuters noted last year:

Ajay Kapur, a Deutsche Bank strategist [and] former Citigroup strategist created a stir five years ago when he built an investment strategy around his thesis that essentially divided the world into two camps: the rich and the rest.

Kapur told clients in 2005 that the United States and a handful of other economies were developing into “plutonomies” where the wealthy few powered economic growth and consumed much of its bounty, while the “multitudinous many” shared the leftovers.

Plutonomies come around only once or twice a century, he argued — 16th century Spain, 17th century Holland, the Gilded Age. The last time it happened in the United States was during the “Roaring 1920s”.

Some shrewd investment advisors have recommended buying rare art and fine wines to cater to the wealthy few.

Given the widespread fear of the Japanese nuclear meltdown – whether you think it’s founded or not – high-end sake made before the March 11th earthquake might be a smart investment.

There are a number of Japanese billionaires. And Japan has more millionaires than any country in the world other than the U.S. At least some of these well-heeled folks have a taste for sake . And wealthy people from other countries have a taste for Japanese beverages as well.

And they would likely pay top dollar to buy their favorite sakes made before the nuclear meltdown started, to make sure that they’re not exposed to any radiation.

A number of people have repatriated from Japan in order to avoid the devastation from the earthquake, the tsunami and the economic downturn.

There are also rumors that some of the wealthiest Japanese have moved to China, the U.S. or elsewhere. As Reuters noted on March 16th:

Thousands of people desperate to escape Japan’s deepening nuclear crisis have inundated private jet companies with requests for evacuation flights, sending prices surging as much as a quarter.
***
Workers are fleeing for Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and as far afield as Australia and the United States as power outages and shortages of basic supplies compound the misery after Friday’s 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

Expats will certainly be eager for a “taste of home” in the form of good sake and other Japanese luxury items.
Like wine, sake doesn’t last forever. Dry, high-alcohol sakes last the longest. Both heat and light will degrade the flavor of sake over time, so sake should be stored in the cool and dark.

Premium sakes usually have the “daiginjo”, “junmai”, “ginjo”, “koshu”, or “genshu” classification on the label.
You can get up to speed on the best sakes by reading this website (and these books) subscribing to Wine Spectator (see this and this) and by reading roundups like this.


Hard Alcohol Lasts Longer

Because sake doesn’t last all that long, an even smarter investment might be traditional Japanese versions of hard alcohol.

Shochu (pronounced as “show-chew”) is the traditional Japanese hard liquor.

Typically brewed from potatoes or wheat , shochu can also be brewed from rice , raw sugar , or even … wait for it … wasabi. Shochu is typically 25 to 35 percent alcohol.

Okinawa – the birthplace of Karate – has its own, stronger version of shochu called awamori (pronounced “ah-wah-mo-ri”), which ranges from 35 to 45 percent alcohol. So highly regarded is awamori among some Japanese connoisseurs that sake expert John Gauntner writes:

It was said that while wealthy people might entrust their money to others, they would always keep the keys to their awamori cellar with them.

Shochu, and especially awamori, should last a long time. And they fit into John Williams’ booze and gold recommendation.

Note: Okinawa is over 1,000 miles from Fukushima. But the potatoes, wheat, rice or other base materials could come from closer to the site of the reactors or to other types of contamination from the Japanese disaster. More importantly, perception is key, and pre-Fukushima alcohol will likely carry a premium.

Are We Looking At a Second Great 'Recession'?, June 1 2011

The Economic Collapse
Are we about to see a repeat of 2008 (or something even worse)? Suddenly all kinds of people are coming out of the woodwork and warning that we could be on the verge of the next major financial collapse. Of course many economists and financial pundits just enjoy hearing themselves talk, and sometimes they will make outrageous claims just to get attention, but when so many ominous warnings come out all at once it does tend to make one sit up and take notice. The truth is that global financial markets are even more vulnerable today than they were in 2008, and all over the globe we are seeing trouble signs. Japan is trying to recover from the worst natural disaster that they have ever seen and they are dealing with a nuclear crisis that never seems to end. The Europeans are trying to put another bailout package for Greece together and about a half dozen more European nations that are drowning in debt will need bailouts after that. In the U.S., there are all kinds of signs pointing to the collapse of the economy and the politicians in Washington D.C. continue to “kick the can down the road” and hope that our economic problems will somehow fix themselves.  Oil prices are incredibly high and turmoil is sweeping the globe.  Conditions are certainly developing that could bring about a “perfect storm” and cause another global financial collapse.

The following is just a sampling of the financial warnings that we have seen in recent days from some prominent voices….

*Economist Nouriel Roubini: “I think right now we’re on the tipping point of a market correction. Data from the U.S., from Europe, from Japan, from China are suggesting an economic slowdown.”
*Jim Rogers: “I would expect to see some serious problems in the foreseeable future….By 2011, 2012, 2013, 2013, I don’t know when, we’re going to have an economic slowdown again.”
*Mark Mobius, the executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management’s emerging markets group: “There is definitely going to be another financial crisis around the corner because we haven’t solved any of the things that caused the previous crisis.”
*David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices: “Home prices continue on their downward spiral with no relief in sight.”
*Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine Capital: “I think we’re looking at some type of echo in the credit crisis coming up here. That’s what I’m afraid of.”
*Carl Icahn: “I do think that there could be another major problem. Now, will it happen next week, next year, i don’t know and certainly nobody knows, but i don’t think that the system is working properly. I really find it amazing that we’re almost back to where it was, where there’s so much leverage going on in the investment banks today. There’s just way too much leverage and way too much risk-taking, with other people’s money.”

Sadly, the world really did not seem to learn much of anything from 2008.  Global financial markets are still pretty much operating the same way that they did before the last crisis.

But back before the crisis in 2008 things were much more stable around the globe.

When the horrible earthquake and tsunami struck Japan earlier this year, most economists brushed it off and believed that Japan would be “resilient” and would bounce back very quickly.

At the time, I went directly against the mainstream consensus with this article: “14 Reasons Why The Economic Collapse Of Japan Has Begun“.

I followed that up with another article entitled “The Japanese Economy Is In Much Bigger Trouble Than Most People Think“.

So who was right?

Well, it turns out that Japan is now officially in a recession.  Their economy contracted at a 3.7 percent annualized rate during the first quarter.

As bad as that number is, just remember that the tsunami did not even hit until March 11th.

So what is the 2nd quarter number going to look like?

There is often a lag between a disaster and the economic effects of the disaster.  The economic impact of this nightmare is going to be felt in Japan for many years to come.  In fact, it is going to be very interesting to see what kind of earnings reports we seeing coming out of Japan in the months ahead.

The economic problems in Japan are also really starting to be felt around the rest of the globe.  The other day, USA Today published an article with the following headline: “U.S. economy damaged more than thought by Japan quake“.

Amazingly, everyone seems to be really surprised that the worst tsunami in modern history is having a significant economic impact.

Meanwhile, the crisis at Fukushima just continues to get worse.

In case you haven’t noticed, the Japanese are not even close to finding a solution to this crisis.

If you want to get a good idea just how bad things are getting around Fukushima, just read this article by Natural News: “Land around Fukushima now radioactive dead zone; resembles target struck by atomic bomb“.

The mainstream media has been doing their best to downplay the crisis at Fukushima, but the truth is that it is now a worse disaster than Chernobyl and life in that region will never be the same again.

Conditions are also ripe in Europe for another financial collapse.

Have you been watching what has been going on in Greece?

It’s crazy.  Without another bailout the Greek government will soon start defaulting on their debts.

The EU and the IMF don’t want to give Greece more bailout money unless there are some significant “strings” attached.  But they also know that if Greece is not bailed out it will cause complete chaos in the financial markets.

The Greek population does not want more bailouts and more austerity.  There have been protests all over the country. Greek citizens have been pulling billions out of Greek banks as the country descends into chaos.

In the end, another bailout deal will get pushed through and the can will be kicked down the road a little while longer.

But what about all of the other European nations that need bailouts?

The government of Ireland is already indicating that they may need another bailout.

Portugal, Spain and Italy (along with several other European nations) are also teetering on the brink of financial disaster.

Most Americans do not realize it, but the European sovereign debt crisis really could set off another global financial crash.  Everyone really should be watching Europe.  It is going to be a very interesting summer.

Of course the United States continues to be an economic basket case.

More depressing housing data came out today.  U.S. home prices are now 5.1% lower than they were a year ago and they have fallen back to mid-2002 levels. CNN is declaring that a housing “double-dip” has been confirmed.

Sadly, U.S. home prices have now fallen farther during this economic downturn than they did during the Great Depression.

Also, the consumer confidence index fell from 66 in April to 60.8 this month.

Americans are becoming more pessimistic about the economy.

According to Gallup, 41 percent of Americans believed that the economy was “getting better” at this time last year.  Today, that number is at just 27 percent.

We are seeing a tremendous about of inflation in 2011, but incomes are not rising.  Unemployment is still rampant and very few jobs are being created.  What is even sadder is that a very high percentage of the jobs that are being created are part-time or temporary jobs.

But this was supposed to be the “recovery”.  Barack Obama and the Congress pushed through “stimulus package” after “stimulus package”.  We added trillions to our national debt.  The Federal Reserve has been printing money like crazy.  An all-out effort was made to pump up the U.S. economy in the short-term.

So after all of that, is this what the “recovery” is going to look like?

Meanwhile, all of those efforts have also made our long-term economic problems even worse.

Because of our exploding national debt and the reckless money printing by the Federal Reserve, faith in the U.S. dollar is dying.  Even the United Nations is warning of a potential dollar collapse.

We are in big, big trouble.

This is about as good as things are going to get for the U.S. economy.  Despite unprecedented efforts, the U.S. economy is still struggling mightily and our long-term economic problems are scarier than ever.

Sadly, most Americans still believe that wonderful economic times are on the way.  Most believe that this downturn is just temporary and that things will soon be better than ever.

How do you think they are going to feel when they find out the truth?

1% Still Holds Majority of Global Wealth, June 1 2011

AFP
WASHINGTON — Around one percent of households have 39 percent of the globe’s wealth according to a study published Tuesday, pointing to increased inequalities in the wake of the global downturn.

The number of millionaire households across the globe increased 12 percent in 2010, according to The Boston Consulting Group report, increasing millionaires’ share of wealth from 37 percent in 2009.

Despite being at the epicenter of the global financial meltdown, the United States had by far the most millionaires last year, with 5,220 millionaire households, and increase of 1.3 percent from the previous year.

Japan was second with 1,530 and China third with 1,110.

Full article here

Ron Paul a "...mainstream candidate", June 1 2011

WILLIAM PETROSKI
Des Moines Register
Mason City, Ia. – U.S. Rep. Ron Paul insisted today he’s no longer a fringe candidate and more Americans are embracing his philosophy of personal liberty and limited government, which he believes increases his chances of being competitive in the 2012 Iowa caucuses.

“We are mainstream if you believe in the things that I believe in,” the Texas Republican told an overflow crowd of about 125 people during a midday speech in a banquet room at the Rose Bowl lanes in Mason City. He said that’s part of what happened in the last election with the success of the tea party movement and the growth of the Republican Party.

Paul, who ran for president in 1988 as the Libertarian Party nominee, has long had a devoted group of followers who have enthusiastically endorsed his criticism of runaway federal spending and government overreach. But some political analysts have contended his views – particularly his laser-like focus on obeying the U.S. Constitution – have been too narrow for him to be elected president. He finished fifth in the 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses with 10 percent support.

Paul maintained today that mainstream American political attitudes are changing, and more people are agreeing with his approach. Increasing numbers of independent-minded people and others who have felt disenfranchised by many American politicians are identifying with the Republican Party, he added.

Paul spoke for about 30 minutes to a crowd that repeatedly applauded his remarks, warning the nation faces serious problems from a federal government that’s out of control. The situation could lead to steep inflation, higher unemployment and a reduced standard of living for Americans, he said .

The larger the government, the more rules and regulations and the less prosperity the society will have, he contended.

“It is a very subtle, if not direct, attack on the way we live,” Paul said.

Full article here

Ron Paul on CNBC 05 31 11 – Liberty is mainstream, Ron Paul is mainstream

 

Gov't Never Fixed Economy; Another Crash Looms, June 1 2011

Washington’s Blog
While the snake oil salespeople at the retail investing level and the bobble heads on the kool aid selling financial channels have been saying for years that we’re in a “recovery” (albeit a slow one), billion dollar fund managers say that nothing has changed and we’ll have another crash.

As Bloomerg reports:

Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Asset Management’s emerging markets group, said another financial crisis is inevitable because the causes of the previous one haven’t been resolved.

“There is definitely going to be another financial crisis around the corner because we haven’t solved any of the things that caused the previous crisis,” Mobius said …“Are the derivatives regulated? No. Are you still getting growth in derivatives? Yes.”

The total value of derivatives in the world exceeds total global gross domestic product by a factor of 10, said Mobius, who oversees more than $50 billion. With that volume of bets in different directions, volatility and equity market crises will occur, he said.

The global financial crisis three years ago was caused in part by the proliferation of derivative products tied to U.S. home loans that ceased performing, triggering hundreds of billions of dollars in writedowns and leading to the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008.

Jeffrey Gundlach notes that we’ve still got a quadrillion dollar derivative overhang which dwarfs the size the of real global economy, the government hasn’t done anything to fix the basic problems in our economy, and so we’ll have another crash:

 

Pimco co-CEO Bill Gross has repeatedly said that the U.S. is running a Ponzi scheme and says:

Ultimately creditors and investors are at the behest of a central bank and policymakers that will rob them of their money.

Pimco co-CEO Mohamed El-Erian predicts that “financial repression” in the form of a negative real rate of return for savers is coming to America.

The New York Times reports:

Even some senior Wall Street executives acknowledge the lack of change surprises them, given how poorly the industry performed last fall and the degree of government support necessary to keep it from collapsing.

“There was a general feeling that an enormous amount of additional regulation should be put in place to prevent what happened that weekend from happening again,” said Byron Wien, vice chairman of Blackstone Advisory Services and the former chief investment strategist for Morgan Stanley and Pequot Capital. “So far, we haven’t seen a lot of action.”

Robert J. Shiller, the Yale University economics professor who predicted the dot-com crash and the housing bust, said the window for change may be closing. “People will accept change at a time of crisis, but we haven’t managed to do much, and maybe complacency is coming back,” Professor Shiller said. “We seem to be losing momentum.”

Kenneth C. Griffin, founder and chief executive of the Citadel Investment Group, a Chicago-based hedge fund that manages $13 billion, said that regulators and lawmakers needed to impose rules so failing banks could be shut, rather than allowed to operate indefinitely with taxpayer support.

“We’ve taken a lot of steps for the worse, and not for the better, in terms of the structural underpinnings of our capital markets,” Mr. Griffin said. “We have to change the rules and correct the fundamental flaws in the financial system.”

While the big boys try to sell the “dumb money” on a recovery under a “greater fool” theory, the smart money knows the score.