Paul Craig Roberts : The Republicans are using the debt ceiling as a way of attacking the social safety net

Peter Schiff :Geithner is lying !

U.$. $TATE$ HIDE BILLION$

By James P. Tucker Jr.
americanfreepress

The Minnesota state government shut down in July, closing state parks on a normally busy holiday weekend, because of a $5 billion “budget deficit.” At least 10 states have expanded gambling options for casinos, inviting more mobsters into their streets, again because of “budget deficits,” which they blame on the weak economy. However, it’s not “deficits” but states hiding money that causes this pain. Minnesota’s shutdown threw thousands of state employees out of work. Construction projects stalled. Millions of dollars in state revenues were lost. But Minnesota had $2.9 billion hidden from taxpayers in fiscal 2010, which ended June 30.

Assets exceeded liabilities by $10.9 billion. Another $2.9 billion in “unrestricted net assets” were hidden from public view.

What all states are not saying is they have plenty of bucks salted away, but you aren’t supposed to know that. Each year, all state and local governments prepare a financial report on assets, liabilities, revenues and expenditures called the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, or CAFR. You read about the budget and how your tax dollars are supposed to be spent in your local newspaper, but you don’t read about money hidden in the CAFR, because America’s controlled media hides these important facts

CAFRs combine the financial reports of government agencies at all levels. They report all government funds, including those held outside the government treasury. It cites amounts owed the government but not received by the end of the fiscal year. It contains information on real property and other fixed assets and long-term obligations held outside the government treasury.

Walter Burien, a former commodity trader and leading authority on CAFRs, claims that state governments are sitting on more than $600 billion worth of assets. And that’s just the states. When you tally up the holdings of all 85,000 local, state and federal governments, the value of all of the assets comes to about $60 trillion, says Burien.

“Being that the CAFR is the accounting document for every local  government, and with it effectively being blacked out for the last 60 years, this intentional omission of coverage is the biggest conspiracy that has ever taken effect in the United States,” said Burien. It’s “the biggest game in town.”

Alan Greenspan, a Bilderberg luminary, got it right years ago when he testified as chairman of the privately owned and controlled Federal Reserve before a Senate Committee: “I’m of the old fiscal school that you raise revenues for basic government purposes and if you don’t have those purposes you give the money back or you don’t tax it. . . . [P]rivate rates of return are significantly higher than the government rates of return.”

The good news is that, thanks to the Internet, it is becoming increasingly difficult for governments to bury their assets. A quick search on the Internet turned up thousands of websites dedicated to exposing CAFRs. AFP editor James P. Tucker Jr. is a veteran journalist who spent many years as a member of the “elite” media in Washington. Since 1975 he has won widespread recognition, here and abroad, for his pursuit of on-the-scene stories reporting the intrigues of global power blocs such as the Bilderberg Group.

QE3 & the Debt Ceiling: Obama Bails Out Empire

What is behind the debt ceiling debate, and Bernanke's announcement of QE III, is President Obama, a British puppet, and his Wall Street controlled allies in the Congress drawing the United States further into the bailout of the foreign bankrupt monetary institutions of the Empire. Glass-Steagall must be restored and Obama removed from office. There are no other options.

Deficits And Stimulus Only Delay The Inevitable Collapse

Bob Chapman
International Forecaster
July 21, 2011

America is insolvent and has been so for a long time, and these games of massive deficits, stimulus and quantitative easing only delay the inevitable deflationary depression and economic and financial collapse, which has been deliberately created by Wall Street and banking to force us to accept World Government.
The actions of Senator Mitch McConnell were absolutely reprehensible and a disgrace. An effort to continue spending to keep his benefactors behind the scenes happy. His proposal was to allow the President to increase the debt three times before the end of 2012, which would be accompanied by Mr. McConnell’s spending cuts. This would avoid a vote and allow the President to act as dictator. Another scam and no mandated cuts. What this boils down to is political theater and the elections not that far away. They’ll be no cuts if any agenda passes, only cuts of future increases.
The national debt will not be touched and the wild spending will continue including $4 trillion to continue more wars. That means $1.5 trillion annual deficits forever. The climbing debt is 80% consumed by the Federal Reserve, which creates money out of thin air. Are we to believe that the Fed will create $2.5 trillion a year for the next three years and perhaps longer? The answer is yes, and the result will be hyperinflation, which will ruin the value of the US dollar. It is obvious the elites are not really looking for a solution; they simply want to destroy the value of the dollar to extinguish economic and financial stability, thereby forcing Americans, Brits and Europeans to accept World Government.
Europeans are finally realizing they cannot bail out six countries for more than $4 trillion without pushing themselves into insolvency. We pointed this number and possibilities out 1-1/2 years ago. There will be a Greek default followed by five other defaults, which will lead up to the end of the euro and perhaps the end of the European Union, that unnatural association. Such defaults over the next few years would wipe out most European banks and that will spread across the world. The catalyst for world financial catastrophe. The money being additionally loaned by EU sovereigns reaches Greece and does a U-turn and returns to European bankers to service debt. In the meantime via austerity Greece descends into a great dark pit. IMF funds take the same route of which almost 20% comes from US taxpayers. In addition the European bank exposure in Greece in part is covered, or insured, by American banks for $160 billion. The reason the banks do not want a default is that the US banks will have to pay off and they do not have the funds to do so. That event could trigger a world banking collapse, or another bailout via US taxpayers and the Fed. There is now no question that the euro will pass into history as another utopian nightmare. For those who were paying attention Greece and Italy should have been bailed out in 2001, not be admitted to the euro zone.
Contagion is doing its work and it is only a matter of time before the dominoes fall. Italy’s public debt to GDP is world class at about 120% and as interest rates climb servicing gets more expensive. Italy and Spain are the real linchpins. If they default everything in those six nations collapses. As we said previously the financial contagion will not only take down the euro and euro zone, but probably the EU as well.
As a result of onerous debt Greek bonds have lost 50% to 75% of their value and the bonds of the other five insolvent countries are in fact in negative pursuit. In just the first quarter Greek spending has fallen 40% just as salaries have. As a result tax revenues have plunged, as we predicted they would some time ago. This is no way to help an economy.
Greece has $480 billion in debt outstanding and about $160 billion is insured by credit default swaps sold by NYC legacy or money center banks. The same thing is true regarding Ireland. Needless to say, the CDS exposure is a guess because there is no reporting or regulation on OTC derivatives. These banks and others as a result just make arrangements that please them. This is why these instruments of financial destruction should be totally banned.
The writers and users of credit default swaps and other derivatives are aiding in continuing this speculation by forces within governments, prominent people such as Sir Alan Greenspan and the media. A change in derivatives reporting is out of the question, so that they can be bought and sold unhindered. In the end when the writers get in trouble it is the taxpayer who guarantees the bill and gets to pay for it.
As you have seen recently in Europe there has an outcry concerning derivatives and the ratings dispensed by rating agencies. Russia and a number of other nations will no longer accept the ratings of S&P, Moody’s and Fitch, because they are bogus and are politically motivated. What agencies do is write a report on a company or nation. Presently the report and demand the entity pay for the report. If they do not pay more often than not a new report follows that is not so flattering. It is called extortion. Wall Street and banking control these agencies. Look at the fraud and criminal collusion in the MBS-CDO market. Outright criminal fraud and the courts refused judgment. These people, who run these companies, should be in jail. They are not because they are part of those who run the system. The Europeans have known this for years, but for whatever reason they have tolerated it. The ratings given by the raters, and the massive use of derivatives have been responsible in great part for the credit crisis. They prompted massive speculation on a scale previously unheard of. It was used for enrichment as well as to keep the system functioning.
What comes to mind is the recent flurry of credit rater downgrades of weak European countries and their sovereign debt. The problems these countries have were known more than ten years ago and now all of a sudden they become a major issue. If Wall Street and US banking control these agencies and the agencies keep downgrading these sovereigns what can be the motivation? We surmise the problems in Europe serve as a distraction from America’s problems, but there could be a more compelling reason. That could be that the powers in NYC and Washington want to destroy the euro as an alternative to the US dollar as the world reserve currency. There could be a major conflict taking place at the highest levels behind the scenes, as to how the world will be run and finances are at the heart of the conflict. It is something to contemplate. We have already come to that conclusion. In this process lower sovereign debt ratings lead to higher interest rates that put more and more financial pressure on these already crippled countries. You can never fully contemplate what goes on in the twisted minds of these predators. Plots so diabolical and evil that the normal descent mind cannot comprehend them.
As we have pointed out the EuropeanCentral Bank, ECB, has made many mistakes. This is a central bank, which is a semi-federal institution, which gets pressure from all sides. This state of affairs leads to hesitancy, which becomes incompetence. At the beginning of the credit crisis they had to be backed by the Fed that lent them trillions of dollars just for the ECB and other member banks to stay afloat. That was and is a dreadful state of affairs. It could be that the condition was in large part caused by the bonds rated AAA by raters and Wall Street, which were in reality BBB bonds. Those European institutions lost trillions of dollars and what is very strange is that there were no civil or criminal legal action regarding the fraud. Of course, when elitists are involved cases never reach court and when they do no one goes to jail. It is what we call a criminal culture. The ECB was the bank that couldn’t sell gold fast enough. Gold as a percentage of assets was 15%, it is now 5%. The ECB is leveraged at about 25 to 1, when 9 to 1 is normal. If assets fall in value 5% the ECB is wiped out. That could very easily happen. They currently hold about $280 billion in Greek bonds that are not worth the paper they are written on. That loss is double their capital base, which means they are insolvent, yet, they go on their merry way deceiving the world. Thus, it is not surprising that the ECB and mostly other central banks and commercial banks want to rape Greece of all its assets at 10 cents to 30 cents on the dollar. As you can see the Greek problem alone can take the euro and EU banks down in a pile of rubble. As a result of this situation the 17 euro zone members would have to recapitalize the ECB, or it could not function. The sovereign banks could contribute and the ECB could sell gold or it could print more money making its euro worth less and cause higher inflation. Even though the US and Japan are in more serious debt load problems the ECB is closer to losing control. Dealing with debt problems is enough for one nation, but having to deal with 17 or 27 nations is daunting.
It is not all that easy for the dollar. Including China foreign reserves kept in US dollars is about 60.5% down from 61.5% just three months previous. As long as the dollar is continually sold it will remain under pressure. If the euro falls by US design then you can understand why. It is because a weaker euro helps the dollar mask its problems. Everyone has to use currencies, but confidence in the euro, dollar, and yen are definitely in retrograde. The US dollar, although it is the world reserve currency, has lost and loses confidence every day because the American system is being looted by Wall Street and banking. As we write a new plan B is going to be discussed this week in regard to the extension of short-term US debt. Thus far the Republicans say they won’t accept tax increases and the President has said he is willing to sacrifice Social Security and Medicare programs the public has paid into for more than 40 years in the case of Medicare and since June of 1935 in the case of Social Security. There has been absolutely no mention of cutting military spending, which has been more than $5 trillion. Thus, perpetual war for perpetual peace will continue and our elderly will starve and go without health care to insure early death, thus relieving government of the burden of having to care for them. Those who call this a political victory for the President are sadly mistaken.
The Constitution says to force default on public obligations of the US is plainly unconstitutional. That includes pensions that should not be questioned. The debate alone is unconstitutional. What we are seeing is an attempt of government to avoid obligations. The Constitution is not optional, it is the law, and the President and the Congress knows that. What should be in process is a discussion of the long-term deficit. That is the way to solve the crisis.
In addition nothing is being done to solve the underlying problem. The banks, Wall Street, banking, insurance and select corporations have had a temporary reprieve, but little has been done to put the economy back on track. Recoveries create tax revenues and reduce debt. That solution to too simple for Washington. They are more interested in cutting paid for benefits then cutting the profits of the military industrial complex.
We all know why Social Security and Medicare were created. They provided health care and income so that the old do not have to survive in poverty. They meet the basic needs of those who cannot help themselves. These programs would be self-sustaining if government didn’t loot their contributions. Are we to all suffer as Congress refuses to come to grips with the real problem and continues to play politics? Are we to suffer because the President refuses to follow the Constitution? Are these players willing to destroy America, as we have known it? We believe that may be the case.
There is little confidence left in government and that is truly understandable.
Last week the Dow fell 1.4%, S&P 2.1%, the Russell 2000 2.8% and the Nasdaq 100 2%. Banks fell 4.2%; broke/dealers 4.1%; cyclicals 2.8%; transports 3.7%; consumers 1.4%; utilities 2.0%; high tech 3.6%; semis 5.7%; Internets 2.7% and biotechs 2.7%. Gold bullion rose $49.00, the HUI gold index leaped 5.9% and the USDX dollar index was little changed at 75.12.
The 10-year T-note was 2.91%, and the German bund fell 13 bps to 2.69%.
The Freddie Mac 30-year fixed rate mortgage fell 9 bps to 4.51%, the 15’s fell 15 bps to 3.65%; the one-year ARMs fell 6 bps to 2.95% and the 30-year fixed rate jumbos fell 3 bps to 5.05%.
Fed credit rose $4.8 to a record $1.859 trillion. Year-on-year Fed credit has expanded 23.5%. Fed foreign holdings of Treasury and Agency debt rose $5.4 billion to $3.451 trillion. Custody holdings for foreign central banks have risen $100 billion ytd and $337 billion yoy, or 10.8%.
Central bank Forex assets, excluding gold, surpassed $10 trillion for the first time, now having doubled in 4.5 years. Reserves rose $1.591 trillion yoy, or 18.8% over two years they are up 44%.
M2, narrow money supply surged $88.7 billion to a record $9.253 trillion. It is up 9.1% year-to-date.
Total money market fund assets rose $9.7 billion to $2.696 trillion.
Total commercial paper outstanding rose $21.3 billion to $1.232 trillion. CP is up $63 billion year-to-date, or 42%.
Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin said Tuesday that it is offering a voluntary layoff program for about 6,500 U.S.-based employees, the latest in a string of recent moves to cut jobs at the company.
The news comes as the Pentagon continues to push for savings from contractors.
The initiative offers a severance package to all U.S.-based, salaried employees who report to Lockheed’s corporate headquarters or internal business services organization. The internal unit of about 5,000 employees handles areas such as payroll and information technology for the company.
About 2,000 of the eligible employees are based in the D.C. area, 1,300 are based in Florida offices — in Orlando and Lakeland — and more than 700 are in Denver, according to company spokeswoman Jennifer Whitlow. A Fort Worth site has about 500 eligible employees, while a Valley Forge, Pa., office has about 300.
The severance package provides two weeks of pay, plus another week of pay per year of service, up to 26 weeks. Eligible employees have until Aug. 12 to decide and would depart in the fall.
“Based on experience with these types of programs, we anticipate that around 2 percent will take advantage of the program,” Whitlow said.
The company said it would evaluate the number of volunteers and its budget before deciding whether to implement layoffs.
Lockheed, the world’s largest defense contractor, has been one of the most aggressive in making personnel cuts. Under a voluntary executive buyout program the company launched last summer, about 600 executives departed at a cost of $178 million. The company has said it expects the program to save it about $350 million in the next five years and $105 million every year thereafter.
Lockheed announced late last month that it would lay off about 1,500 employees in its 28,000-employee aeronautics business, which is primarily based in Texas, Georgia and California. At its space systems business, the company said last month, it would reduce its 16,000-employee workforce by 1,200, particularly seeking to shrink middle management by 25 percent. Lockheed said the cuts would most severely hit Sunnyvale, Calif.; the Delaware Valley region of Pennsylvania; and Denver.
In both cases, the company said it would offer eligible employees voluntary layoffs before making involuntary cuts.
In a statement of administration policy, the White House Office of Management and Budget labeled the GOP bill as an “empty political statement.”
The House Rules Committee is expected to take up the measure on Monday, and it is likely to receive a floor vote on Tuesday. The measure would cut spending in Fiscal Year 2012 by $111 billion, cap future spending at 19.9 percent of gross domestic product and would allow for the debt ceiling to be increased if a balanced budget amendment is approved by Congress and sent to the stats.

Bernanke Feeds the Panic, Announces QEIII; Only Glass-Steagall Can Stop It

With Europe engulfed in debt-panic and the European Central Bank (ECB) becoming a huge “bad bank” for unpayable debt assets, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stepped into the breach July 13 by announcing to the House Financial Services Committee that the Federal Reserve is preparing a QEIII, with more expansion of its asset book. Stocks and the Euro momentarily soared, the dollar plunged.
Bernanke seemed to be defying what just-released minutes of June 22 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting showed, namely, that only “a few members” were in favor of even considering another round of “monetary stimulus,” or money-printing. A few hours after Bernanke’s announcement in Congress, Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher said in a speech there, “We’ve exhausted our ammunition, in my view, and expanding the Fed’s balance sheet from about $2.7 trillion to more than $3 trillion might spook the marketplace. I do not personally see the benefit of more monetary accommodation even if the economy weakens further.” One day earlier, retiring Kansas City Fed chief Thomas Hoenig, no doubt aware of what Bernanke would do, had blasted Fed money-printing in a speech: “Part of our basic problem worldwide and here in the U.S., is that the emperor has no clothes and no one’s willing to say it. You print money, print money, and print money, but you don’t create real wealth.”
All commentary focussed on the fact that Bernanke was trying to save the Euro single currency a hopeless task, and one that leads the Fed further into violating even the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Note that on June 29, the Fed extended unlimited currency swap lines of credit to the ECB and the Swiss, British, Canadian, and Japanese central banks. The ECB is being widely described as a “European bad bank” in the growing debt crisis, as it has lowered the standards for the collateral assets it is buying from banks, to below junk grade, and is buying from private equity funds, hedge funds, and investment banks. Will the Fed now be directly buying European sovereign debt, or European bank bonds, in support of the floundering ECB? Without waiting to find out, QEIII should be stopped.
An interesting report appearing July 6 on the financial analysis website “Zero Hedge”, used Federal Reserve flow-of-funds and bank reserves charts to show that all $600 billion of the so-called QEII money-printing appeared to go offshore to big Inter-Alpha and other European banks. The Fed’s purchases of Treasuries with its newly printed reserves from November 2010 to June 30, 2011 evidently were overwhelmingly from BNP Paribas, RBS, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, and UBS. The “Zero Hedge” analyst concluded: “The only beneficiary of the reserves generated were US-based branches of foreign banks (which in turn turned around and funnelled the cash back to their domestic branches), a shocking finding which explains … why US banks have been unwilling and unable to lend out these reserves.”
Arguably, this violates the 1913 Federal Reserve Act, even with its 1932 “exigent and unusual circumstances” amendment, which still requires AAA-rated collateral in the form of U.S. Treasuries or equivalent, for the Fed lending to any “non-bank.”
But on more fundamental Constitutional grounds, an attempt to repeat this in a QEIII would be barred and the QEII effects could be reversed by immediate passage of legislation restoring the Glass-Steagall Act through both Houses of Congress. Under Glass-Steagall, not only were commercial banks separated from various kinds of securities-speculation and insurance firms. The Glass-Steagall principle is that only those commercial banks, thus separated, in the Federal Reserve System U.S. banks are eligible for Federal support in the form of discount window and special lending, deposit insurance, and other protective regulation. All the big European banks are famously “banking supermarkets” stuffed with investment banking arms, speculative hedge funds, insurance divisions, money-market funds, etc.
The current trans-Atlantic bad-debt bubble, imploding in Europe now, does not qualify for such lending or support; that gambling debt should be left on the shoulders of those who bet on it. Glass-Steagall passage would stop this latest panic bailout.

Global demand for U.S. stocks, bonds and other financial assets rose in May from a month earlier as China and Japan added to their holdings of government securities, the Treasury Department reported.

Net buying of long-term equities, notes and bonds totaled $23.6 billion during the month, compared with net buying of $30.6 billion in April, according to statistics issued today in Washington. Including short-term securities such as stock swaps, foreigners sold a net $67.5 billion compared with net buying of $66.6 billion the previous month.
The Treasury’s reporting on long-term securities is a gauge of confidence in U.S. economic policy, and today’s report suggests the U.S. continues to offer safety from the economic crisis in Europe even with the White House and Congress at odds over raising the Treasury’s borrowing authority.
“The U.S is a political risk perhaps as Congress deliberates over the debt ceiling, but no one views the U.S. as being unable financially to meet their obligations,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York, before today’s report in an e-mail.
Economists in a Bloomberg News survey projected long-term U.S. financial assets would show net buying of $40 billion in May. Five economists participated in the survey, and their estimates ranged from $30 billion to $66 billion.
The data capture international purchases of government notes and bonds, stocks, corporate debt and securities issued by U.S. agencies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy home mortgages.
China Biggest
China remained the biggest foreign holder of U.S. Treasuries, after its holdings rose by $7.3 billion to $1.16 trillion in May, according to the Treasury’s statistics.
Japan, the second-largest holder, increased its holdings by $5.5 billion to $912.4 billion in May. Hong Kong, counted separately from China, reduced its holdings by $500 million to $121.9 billion.
Total foreign purchases of Treasury notes and bonds were $38 billion in May compared with purchases of $23.3 billion in April.

Former commodities trader Vincent P. McCrudden, accused of threatening to kill financial regulators, pleaded guilty today.

McCrudden pleaded guilty to two counts of transmission of threats to injure, before opening arguments were scheduled to begin in his trial in federal court in Central Islip, New York. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. His sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 5.
McCrudden, 50, who also ran his own hedge funds, was accused of threatening the lives of 47 current and former officials, including Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary L. Schapiro and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler.
McCrudden has been held without bail since he was arrested Jan. 13 returning from Singapore. He was charged with threatening the regulators in profanity-filled e-mails and, after the CFTC sued him in December, Web postings. McCrudden had said he was being persecuted for fighting back against unfair regulatory actions that destroyed his career.
“On Dec. 10, 2010, I was notified that I was being civilly sued by the CFTC for $58 million,” McCrudden told U.S. District Judge Denis R. Hurley. “It upset me. I had started to post some things on the site that hadn’t been there before.”

Cisco Systems Inc., the world’s largest maker of computer-networking gear, is reducing its work force by about 9 percent to reduce costs and raise profits as the company tries to become more competitive.

Monday’s announcement to cut 6,500 of its roughly 73,000 worldwide employees follows up on a plan disclosed in May to eliminate thousands of jobs. Two-thirds will come through layoffs, and the rest through an early-retirement plan. The company said 15 percent of employees at or above the level of vice president are being eliminated.
Cisco has long been a high-growth company, but after rebounding from the recession, its sales started stalling about a year ago. Critics have long said that Cisco tries to compete in too many markets.
CEO John Chambers acknowledged that criticism in April and sent employees a memo vowing to take “bold steps” to narrow the company’s focus. Cisco killed off its Flip video camcorder business that month, and it reorganized its management structure a month later. Monday’s cuts represent Cisco’s latest attempt to simplify.
Cisco is also suffering from rising competition from companies like Juniper Networks Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. in the market for computer-networking equipment, including the routers and switches that direct the flow of data traffic.
Cisco said the cuts will cost it $1.3 billion in severance and termination benefits. The company, which is based in San Jose, Calif., plans to take the charge over several quarters. It will take $750 million of that, including $500 million for the early-retirement program, during the current quarter.
Cisco will inform employees who have been cut in the U.S., Canada and some other countries during the first week of August. The rest will come later to comply with local laws.
In May, Cisco said it planned to eliminate thousands of jobs as part of a larger plan to lower annual expenses by $1 billion, or about 6 percent. Cisco didn’t say then how many jobs would be eliminated, but the number worked out to 4,000 to 5,000 if the percentage of job cuts were similar to the reduction in expenses. The exact number has been the subject of many analyst and published reports since then. The numbers announced Monday are much higher than the 6 percent figure.
Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall said the cuts were in line with what he was expecting.
“Obviously, while an unfortunate event it’s a necessity for Cisco to heal and get back on a competitive stature in the industry,” he said.
Also Monday, Cisco said it agreed to sell its Juarez, Mexico-based set-top box manufacturing plant to Foxconn Technology Group, a Taiwanese company that makes many Apple products. The plant’s 5,000 employees will join Foxconn by October. Those 5,000 are in addition to the 6,500 being cut from Cisco.
Earlier this year, Cisco cut 550 workers as part of its decision to kill Flip and reorganize.
Housing starts in the U.S. rose more than forecast in June to the fastest pace in five months, led by a surge in work on multifamily dwellings like apartments.
Work began on 629,000 houses at an annual pace, up 14.6 percent from the prior month, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The level of starts exceeded the most optimistic forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists. Building permits, a sign of future construction, unexpectedly climbed 2.5 percent.
Five of the 15 states with top bond ratings from Moody’s Investors Service may be downgraded because their dependence on federal revenue makes them vulnerable to a U.S. credit cut should talks to raise the debt limit fail.
Maryland, South Carolina, New Mexico, Tennessee and Virginia are under review, New York-based Moody’s said today. The action affects $24 billion of general-obligation and related debt, it said. The states are rated Aaa, Moody’s top municipal grade.
 

Two Examples of Fascism Run by Banks

Ethan Jacobs, J.D.
GCN Live.com
July 18, 2011



The United States and other countries of the world are becoming more fascist as New World Order globalists rush to complete their fascist world government by late 2012. According to Italy’s former fascist dictator and MI5 asset, Benito Mussolini, “fascism should rightly be called corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power.” The following examples demonstrate fascism/corporatism within the banking structure of the United States.

JP Morgan and Bank of America

JP Morgan and Bank of America obtain profits by issuing government funded food stamps/subsidies.

JP Morgan is the largest processor of food stamp benefits in the United States. JP Morgan has contracted to provide food stamp debit cards in 26 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. JP Morgan is paid for each case that it handles, so that means that the more Americans that go on food stamps, the more profits JP Morgan makes.

Currently, approximately 44.2 million Americans (1 in 7) are receiving food stamps, which means JP Morgan will continue to reap great profits in addition to their regular derivatives and fractional reserve banking scams.
Not to be left out, Bank of America and Visa struck a deal with the State of California:

“The Employment Development Department (EDD) Debit Card^SM from Bank of America is the new and more efficient way of delivering California State Disability Insurance (Disability Insurance [DI], Paid Family Leave [PFL]), and beginning July 8, 2011 Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefit payments…The EDD Debit Card^SM can be used everywhere Visa(R) debit cards are accepted.”

Of course, using the fascist debit card is subject to bank fees. Therefore, rather than issuing checks directly to recipients, California chose a debit card system that will guarantee fees and profits paid to B of A and Visa.

The Federal Reserve

The Federal Reserve banking system is privately owned. Its shareholders are private banks. It creates money out of nothing and loans it to the government with interest, thereby transforming citizens into collective debt slaves called “taxpayers.” The Federal Reserve is not held accountable by Congress, which is supposed to have the power of the purse, and openly admits such.
The Federal Reserve Act was written in secret during 1910 on Jeykll Island by the following banksters and their minions:
1. Nelson W. Aldrich, Republican “whip” in the Senate, Chairman of the National Monetary Commission, business associate of J.P. Morgan, father-in-law to John D. Rockefeller, Jr.;
2. Abraham Piatt Andrew, Assistant Secretary of the United States Treasury;
3. Frank A. Vanderlip, president of the National City Bank of New York, the most powerful of the banks at that time, representing William Rockefeller and the international investment banking house of Kuhn, Loeb & Company;
4. Henry P. Davison, senior partner of the J.P Morgan Company;
5. Charles D. Norton, president of J.P. Morgan’s First National Bank of New York;
6. Benjamin Strong, head of J.P. Morgan’s Bankers Trust Company; and
7. Paul M. Warburg, a partner in Kuhn, Loeb & Company, a representative of the Rothschild banking dynasty in England and France, and brother to Max Warburg who was head of the Warburg banking consortium in Germany and the Netherlands.
Congress and President Woodrow Wilson committed treason in 1913 by passing the Federal Reserve Act, which meant that the U.S. government would now borrow money from private banks at interest.
Also in 1913, the Internal Revenue Service started to collect income taxes under the 16th Amendment, which for the most part is used to pay interest on the national debt to the private banks that own the Federal Reserve.
The Federal Reserve owners also profit by making favorable loans to the their private banks and allies:

Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Royal Bank of Scotland each borrowed at least $US30 billion ($29 billion) in 2008 from a Federal Reserve emergency lending program whose details weren’t revealed to shareholders, members of Congress or the public…Units of 20 banks were required to bid at auctions for the cash. They paid interest rates as low as 0.01 per cent that December, when the Fed’s main lending facility charged 0.5 per cent.

In essence, such loans are “free money” to giant banks. Even the least savvy investor could turn a profit if they were loaned billions of dollars at 0.01 percent interest. Small banks and individuals need not apply for such “borrowing programs.”
Approval ratings are another indication that Congress and CFR/Bilderberg Obama clearly represent corporate/banking interests and not the will of the people. Currently congress has 18 percent approval rating, while Obama’s is below fifty percent.
In conclusion, JP Morgan and Bank of America profit from government assistance programs. The Federal Reserve is a private bank that loans money to the government, thereby enslaving its citizens with the national debt. These two examples of fascism in the United States banking structure form the basis for ushering in the New World Order.
Fortunately, we as a people can easily remove these fascist systems. The largest banks must be boycotted and the Federal Reserve System abolished like previous and more open forms of slavery.
This article first appeared on Activist Post.

Ethan Jacobs is founder of Beachday Surfwear. He holds a Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. Ethan’s passion is researching and writing about important issues to defeat every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

Planned Pedophilia, UN Style

 

International Planned Parenthood kicks off international blitz
at U.N. conference on “Sex Rights for Children.”
“This story is really about preventing parents from protecting their children from sexual predators – including the State.”


by Richard Evans
(henrymakow.com)

The International Planned Parenthood Federation are now advocating the “right” to consent to sex acts become a plank the platform of the United Nations “Rights of the Child” Treaty.   The international abortion NGO released two documents to be used by child sex advocates as part of a media blitz, directing children of any age to “explore avenues of sexuality”, and directly attacking the protective role of the parents.
This UN council plans on punishing “violators and abusers of the rights of the child” as defined by UN tribunal.
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2011/sc10319.doc.htm
Planned Parenthood, fronting for gay and pedophile NGO’s, want heterosexual values such as chastity and age of consent, ruled a violation of children’s “sexual rights.”
LifeNews/CFAM writes; “The sexual rights guide “Exclaim!” calls for a cornucopia of sexuality and gender protections and entitlements under the guise of international law.”
“Governments must respect, protect and fulfill all sexual rights for young people,” the publication states. The guide is designed to help young people become sex advocates.”
“Young people are sexual beings.” and “…All people under 18 should enjoy the full range of human rights, including sexual rights…”
It goes on to demand the removal of parental and spousal consent laws that prevent minors from “seeking reproductive health services” without parental knowledge and consent.   The documents encourage children as young as ten to “become sexual rights advocates”.
This “Exclaim!” text is drawn from the “Basic Sexual Rights” manifesto of the “Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality,” headquartered in San Francisco. It refers to under-aged as sexually “disadvantaged.”
“The recognition by society that every person, partnered or unpartnered, has the right to the pursuit of a satisfying consensual sociosexual life free from political, legal or religious interference and that there need to be mechanisms in society where the opportunities of sociosexual activities are available to the following: disabled persons; chronically ill persons; those incarcerated in prisons, hospitals or institutions; those disadvantaged because of age…”
If you have any doubt they’re not referring minors and children, please watch The Kinsey Syndrome and see the Institute’s website
The Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality was founded as a satrap of the Kinsey Institute in the 1950′s.  It trains ‘sex educators’ to prepare public school teachers to teach children contraception and homosexual/lesbian techniques and how to masturbate and use pornography.
Kinsey and his Institute aided an international network of pedophiles.  One reason for the astounding immunity of such “child sexual rights advocates” is the covert support of highly placed perverts in government, including the blackmail of some very important men.

This story is really about preventing parents from protecting their children from sexual predators – including the State.
Meanwhile, last week California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that mandates “Gay History Lessons in Public Schools.”
What IPPF’s “Sex Rights for Children’ means is that a 12-year-old can get an abortion through Planned Parenthood without the parents knowledge or approval.  It also affirms the child’s “right” to “gay” lessons on the tax payers dime at school. Finally, it affirms the “right” to consent to sexual “explorations” with anybody,  regardless of age or gender “choice”.
Does a child’s :”rights” include opting out of sex classes promoting masturbation and bisexuality, or even the “gay” history curriculum in California?
No, it doesn’t.  “Human Rights” is a euphemism for satanic social engineering and perversion.
Related-
“Why are Babies being vaccinated for STD’s?”
Condoms Disguised as Lollipops 

—–LINKS—–
Judith Reisman was way ahead of what’s been going on now.  It was all planned out by Kinsey Institute and funded from the beginning by the Rockefeller Foundation.
Kinsey Myths
http://www.drjudithreisman.com/archives/2011/06/sex_lies_and_vi.html
Secret History: Kinsey’s Paedophiles
A 1998 documentary, aired on Channel 4 in the U.K.. See the original press release. Secret History: Kinsey’s Paedophiles is referred to in this revealing chapter from the book Kinsey, Crime & Consequences. Watch Secret History: Kinsey’s Paedophiles here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htAUysRPvNs&feature=player_embedded
MUST SEE – Kinsey’s Fraud
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAvF23WvoUc&feature=related
Or here,
http://drjudithreisman.org/archives/2009/03/watch_videos_on.html
International Planned Parenthood  “EXCITE Campaign” web page
http://www.ippf.org/en/Resources/Guides-toolkits/Exclaim.htm
UN Children’s Rights Convention
http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/6147/
Obama appointee lauded NAMBLA figure
http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/obama-appointee-lauded-nambla-figure

Keiser Report: Europe's Neo Feudalism

Greenspan: Dumb Americans Deserve Unemployment

Kurt Nimmo
GCN Live.com
July 15, 2011



The former boss of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, said the reason Gen-Xers are unemployed and suffering from a lower standard of living is because they are lazy, stupid, and unproductive. U.S. companies would be better off hiring immigrants.
“Baby boomers are being replaced by groups of young workers who have regrettably scored rather poorly in international educational match-ups over the last two decades,” said Greenspan. “The average income of U.S. households headed by 25-year-olds and younger has been declining relative to the average income of the baby boomer population. This is a reasonably good indication that the productivity of the younger part of our workforce is declining relative to the level of productivity achieved by the retiring baby boomers. This raises some major concerns about the productive skills of our future U.S. labor force.”



So-called Gen-Xers are not stupid and lazy. They are victims of globalism and outsourcing. Over the last two decades, jobs have been systematically stripped from the United States and exported to slave gulags in China and India. Gen Xers must compete with people who make two or three dollars a day.
NAFTA and globalist trade agreements are responsible for moving jobs out of the country, not the dismal test scores of Gen Xers.
Public education in the United States is not about creating intelligent, innovative and productive citizens. It’s about creating obedient citizens who no longer have the knowledge and skills to improve their lives and are dependent on government and large transnational corporations.
Public education prepares young people for world government. It is about destroying free will and replacing it with an acceptance of corporate totalitarianism, as Charlotte Iserbyt revealed in her book, The Dumbing Down of America.
In 1952, the Reece Committee learned that the Rockefeller Foundation and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace were working to turn schools into indoctrination centers designed to train students to accept one world government, socialism, collectivism and humanism.
Greenspan and the globalists are purposely flooding the country with immigrants. They are doing this not because immigrants are more intelligent and productive than Americans. They are doing it because desperate immigrants will work for less and will displace American workers.
Greenspan knows all of this. It is particularly reprehensible that he would blame the victims, especially considering the role he played in the globalist looting of America.
The Federal Reserve is the primary tool used domestically by the financial elite to wreck the U.S. economy and merge it into the globalist model.
Fox News plays right into the deception.
“But the lack of productivity Greenspan frets over can arguably also be set at the feet of our growing entitlement culture, which we explored in some detail several weeks ago for Entitlement Nation Week. Being a productive worker means having a commitment to honest labor,” writes Elizabeth MacDonald for Fox Business. “That has eroded as more people have relied upon the federal government for the growth of their household wealth. That, in turn, has led to a troubling change in attitude in this country.”
It has little to do with honest labor or entitlements. It has to do with bankers and multinational corporations exporting jobs to third world hell-holes lorded over by totalitarian thugs.
Fox’s job is to divert attention away from the real culprits and replace it with the false right-left narrative that drives politics in America as the globalists work behind the scenes to impoverish the nation and loot everything of value

Lyndon LaRouche: QEIII and the Fate of Mankind

Gerald Celente - US and Europe Collapse

Russian Leader Slams US As Western Civilization Nears Collapse

In a withering speech before members of the Russian Academy of Science in Moscow, Prime Minister Putin [photo top left] branded the United Statescurrent monetary policy as “hooliganism” and stated, “We, thankfully or not, cannot print a reserve currency. But what are they (the Americans) doing? They simply spit nails, turn on the printing press and throw money to the world, in order to resolve their urgent problems.”
The United States printing of money out of thin air is called Quantitative Easing (QE) and is an unconventional monetary policy tool used to stimulate their national economy since conventional monetary policy has become ineffective. The US Federal Reserve began their policy of Quantitative Easing by purchasing financial assets from banks and other private sector businesses with new money that it had created electronically, but which has no hard assets backing it up.
Though the US began the practice of creating money out of thin air after the Great Economic Collapse of 2008, it has not been alone as the Bank of England, The European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan have, likewise, over the past nearly 3 years printed in excess of over $4 Trillion in currency that when joined with the $5 Trillion printed by the Americans have left our world awash in paper money that has near worthless value.
According to top Russian economists, the greatest danger posed to the entire global economic structure by the Western nations flooding world markets with near worthless money is the staggering weight it has put on those few currencies that our based on sound measures and backed with real worth, but whose markets are now flooded with foreign buyers seeking safety for their assets, which at the same time is pricing their products out of reach due to the appreciation of their money.
Perhaps no nation has been hurt more than the South American nation of Brazil whose economy remains one of the soundest in the entire world, but whose Finance Minister, Guido Mantega, warned this past week that the “global currency war shows no signs of ending” and are, indeed, about to get worse.
Unbeknownst to the vast majority of Western peoples is that for the first time in history their entire civilization is on the brink of total collapse as the United States, Europe and Japan are all poised to see their economies crash, and there is no one in the world that can stop it.
The worst, by far, of this triad of global powers that underpin the entire Western World is the United States whose debt woes can only be described in the most apocalyptic of terms as their total debt is over $54 Trillion and their unfunded liabilities have reached the impossible to pay amount of $114 Trillion.
Not being understood by the American people about this crisis is that it centers on the $114 Trillion owed to them under what are called entitlement programmes, such as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, which all are insolvent as the monies paid into them over these past 5 decades have been looted to pay for wars, corporate subsidies, tax breaks for their elite classes, and too many other extravagant programmes to mention.
Even worse for these unsuspecting Americans is that in the 1960 US Supreme Court Case titled Flemming v. Nestor (363 U.S. 603)  the Court ruled that they do not have any “earned rights” to any  Social Security benefits, or any other government entitlement programme, as their perceived benefits were a“non-contractual interest.” The Court further declared, “To engraft upon the Social Security system a concept of ‘accrued property rights’ would deprive it of the flexibility and boldness in adjustment to ever-changing conditions which it demands.”
The current “ever-changing conditions” spoken of by the US Supreme Court in their 1960 decision in regards to Social Security, and other entitlement programmes, owed to the American taxpayers, who actually paid for them in the first place, allows their government to wipe them out entirely and, instead, give these Trillions-of-dollars to the “too big to fail” banks, corporations and financial elite who looted all of this wealth in the first place.
It is, also, important to note that since that fateful 1960 US Supreme Court decision the US has used the vast wealth of their Social Security system to wage unrelenting and continued war to expand their empire, but at the cost of destroying their own nation.
Though the United States is the largest of the Western nations rushing toward total economic collapse they are far from being alone as the European Union today stands on the brink of oblivion and the catastrophic disasters of nuclear meltdowns, earthquake and tsunami damage have all but eviscerated Japan from ever rising again as a major power.
To the most catastrophic outcome now being faced by the Western world is their fulfilling the “vision” of the German Marxist political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels who in their 1848 book Manifesto of the Communist Party (most commonly known as “The Communist Manifesto”) advocated the destruction of capitalistic societies through the exact means we are now witnessing, and which include economic collapse to followed by civil unrest which would then allow the elite classes to seize power and enslave all of their citizens.
Most chilling to note is that the United States today, which was once the freest nation our world has ever known, has now fulfilled 90% of the demands made by Karl Marx, and as we can see evidenced:

The 10 Planks of Communism by Karl Marx

1. Abolition of private property in land and application of all rents of land to public purpose
No one in America owns their land outright anymore as the government has the ability to tax it at an amount unaffordable to the land owner.  Through the concept of “eminent domain” the government can, also, seize any private land it so chooses.

2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

After the ending of World War II the US instituted this tax depriving millions of middle class people from fully realizing the benefit of what they earned. [Note: After throwing off the yoke of communism Russiainstituted a flat tax for all of its citizens and businesses.]

3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance

In the US these are called estate taxes or death taxes which keep the middle classes from being able to pass on their accumulated wealth to their heirs.

4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels

This is nothing more than government seizures, IRS property confiscation and the 1997 Crime/Terrorist bill which calls for the imprisonment of terrorists but also for those who speak out against the government. Your LIFE is the most valuable property you have, but the government has the right to take it away because of things that you may say. Consider Senate Bill 3081, the “Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010,” co-sponsored by Sens. John McCain and Joe Lieberman. The following is actual text from the bill that explains what a belligerent may be and the reasons they can be detained without due process: “(A) The potential threat the individual poses for an attack on civilians or civilian facilities within the United States or upon United States citizens or United States civilian facilities abroad at the time of capture or when coming under the custody or control of the United States… (B) The potential threat the individual poses to United States military personnel or United States military facilities at the time of capture or when coming under the custody or control of the United States…. (C) The potential intelligence value of the individual… (D) Membership in al-Qaida or in a terrorist group affiliated with al-Qaida… (E) Such other matters as the president considers appropriate. . .”

5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly

The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 created the Federal Reserve, and now the government owns many of the country’s largest banks via bailout money.

6. Centralization of the means of communication and transportation in the hands of the state

The FAA, FCC, and the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) are all US government entities that propose to regulate how citizens travel and what is said.

7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan

On 9 June 2011 President Obama signed into law Executive Order 13575 in which the intent is to seize greater power over “food, fiber, and energy.”

8. Equal obligation of all to work and the establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture

Because of high inflation and higher taxes US society has been thrust for these past 60+ years into a dual income family at the minimum. In many instances both husband and wife have multiple jobs.

9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over the country

Follow link to Executive Order 13575 under Plank #7

10. Free education for all children in government schools and abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form – combination of education with industrial production, etc

The American public school system indoctrinates children into the agenda that the federal government wants for them. Both the national department of education and the state level departments of education adhere to an outcome based education model where excellence in not rewarded and lackluster performance is not dealt with in the proper manner so kids don’t get their feelings hurt. The whole standard of“equalization” is drilled into these children’s heads through the public school system so by the time they graduate they are “socialized” having no context of who they are supposed to be as American citizens.
The next “stage,” so to speak, for the total destruction of America following The Communist Manifesto is the igniting of mass civil unrest, and which one of the United States top statesmen, and National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter,  Zbigniew Brzezinski warned is about to happen when this past week he predicted that middle class unrest caused by economic disenfranchisement would soon hit America.
The Founding Fathers of America warned their future generations that a democracy was both extreme and dangerous for a country as it would most assuredly result in the oppression of the minority by the majority.
After the destruction of Europe due to World War I, and in witnessing the descent into madness caused by the Russian Revolution which allowed the Communists to take power, the US War Department on30 November 1928 issued to all US Soldiers a handbook reiterating this warning given to all Americans by their Founding Fathers about what could happen, and we quote exactly:

CITIZENSHIP Democracy:

A government of the masses. Authority derived through mass meeting or any other form of “direct” expression. Results in mobocracy. Attitude toward property is communistic–negating property rights. Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether is be based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences. Results in demogogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy.

CITIZENSHIP Republic:

Authority is derived through the election by the people of public officials best fitted to represent them. Attitude toward law is the administration of justice in accord with fixed principles and established evidence, with a strict regard to consequences. A greater number of citizens and extent of territory may be brought within its compass. Avoids the dangerous extreme of either tyranny or mobocracy. Results in statesmanship, liberty, reason, justice, contentment, and progress. Is the “standard form” of government throughout the world. A republic is a form of government under a constitution which provides for the election of:
(1) an executive and (2) a legislative body, who working together in a representative capacity, have all the power of appointment, all power of legislation, all power to raise revenue and appropriate expenditures, and are required to create (3) a judiciary to pass upon the justice and legality of their government acts and to recognize (4) certain inherent individual rights.
Take away any one or more of those four elements and you are drifting into autocracy. Add one or more to those four elements and you are drifting into democracy.
Outside Independence Hall in when the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ended, Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked of the Great American Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got a republic or a monarchy?” With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Today that exact question is being asked of all Americans “can they keep it?” On their answer hangs the balance of all Western civilization, let’s all hope they get it right.

© July 13, 2011 EU and US all rights reserved. Permission to use this report in its entirety is granted under the condition it is linked back to its original source at WhatDoesItMean.Com.

Lyndon LaRouche: War is Globalist Favorite Tool of Choice for Poplutation Reduction

Mr. LaRouche talks about the destruction of the economy and the dictatorial direction of Obama and the globalists as they wage multiple wars in brazen defiance of Congress and the American people