‘Gold Will Outlive Dollar Once Slaughter Comes’
October 29th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
The world’s monetary system is in the process of melting down. We have entered the endgame for the dollar as the dominant reserve currency, but most investors and policy makers are unaware of the implications.
The only questions are how long the denouement of the dollar reserve system will last, and how much more damage will be inflicted by new rounds of quantitative easing or more radical monetary measures to prop up the system.
Whether prolonged or sudden, the transition to a stable monetary system will become possible only when the shortcomings of the status quo become unbearable. Such a transition is, by definition, nonlinear. So central-bank soothsaying based on the extrapolation of historical data and the repetition of conventional wisdom offers no guidance on what lies ahead.
It’s amazing that there is no intelligent discourse among policy leaders on the subject of monetary rot and its implications for the future economic and political landscape. Until there is fundamental monetary reform on an international scale, most economic forecasts aren’t worth the paper on which they are written.
Telltale signs of future trouble aren’t hard to spot. Only a few months ago, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and a chorus of other high-ranking Fed officials were talking about exit strategies from the U.S. central bank’s bloated balance sheet and the financial system’s unprecedented excess liquidity. Now, those same officials are talking about pumping more money into the system to stimulate growth.
And Now… Cheap Fluoride from China Leaves Unknown, Insoluble Residue in Municipal Water Systems
October 29th, 2010Update: Multiple Tests Can’t Determine What The Material Is?
Via: The Daily News (Newburyport) on Fluoride Action Network:
Desmarais said while soluble sodium fluoride has traditionally proved easy to dissolve and add to the water supply, in recent years he’s found that 40 percent of the product they’ve been buying will not dissolve, and he doesn’t know why. Desmarais has sent the material out for testing on two separate occasions, but had no luck in determining what it contained. He has sent it back to the supplier and had a better quality product delivered following the complaint. But the next delivery presents with the same problem, he said.
—End Update—
Never mind the fluoride toxicity issue. We all know about that.
WTF is this bonus material???
Britain: No Terror Arrests in 100,000 Police Counter-Terror Searches
October 29th, 2010Via: Guardian:
More than 100,000 people were stopped and searched by police under counter-terrorism powers last year but none of them were arrested for terrorism-related offences, according to Home Office figures published today.
The statistics show that 504 people out of the 101,248 searches were arrested for any offence – an arrest rate of 0.5%, compared with an average 10% arrest rate for street searches under normal police powers.
The figures prompted the former Conservative home affairs spokesman David Davis to call for the controversial policy to be scrapped.
“This astonishing fact of no terrorism-related arrests, let alone prosecutions or convictions, in over 100,000 stop and searches, demonstrates what a massively counter-productive policy this is,” said Davis.
“A policy which fuels resentment and antagonism amongst minority communities without achieving a single terrorist conviction serves only to help our enemies and increase the terrorism threat.”
Overall U.S. Intelligence Budget: $80.1 Billion
October 29th, 2010Does the number include all of the special access programs?
Via: Los Angeles Times:
The U.S. government on Thursday disclosed for the first time in more than a decade what it spent in total on intelligence gathering in the fiscal year that just ended: $80.1 billion.
That’s more than the U.S. spent on the Department of Homeland Security ($53 billion) and the Justice Department ($30 billion), according to figures from the White House Office of Management and Budget. It represents about 12% of the nation’s $664-billion defense budget.
The total intelligence budget has doubled since 2001, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in a statement.
TSA Rolling Out New “Hand Sliding” Pat-Down Technique at Airports
October 29th, 2010Homeland Security rubdown?
Via: AP:
The Transportation Security Administration is changing the way it pats down passengers at airports — moving from the screener’s traditional hand pat to more of a hand-sliding motion, a law enforcement official said Thursday.
The TSA regularly reviews and updates its screening procedures, agency spokeswoman Kristin Lee said. And screeners will continue to use the pat-down method to help detect hidden and dangerous items like explosives or bomb parts.
Lee said the procedure will continue to be conducted by screeners who are the same gender as the passenger. The TSA, for security reasons, would not provide details about the differences in the new technique for pat-downs.
Private Prison Interests Behind Arizona Immigration Law
October 29th, 2010“I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise.”
—Fight Club
Via: NPR:
Last year, two men showed up in Benson, Ariz., a small desert town 60 miles from the Mexico border, offering a deal.
Glenn Nichols, the Benson city manager, remembers the pitch.
“The gentleman that’s the main thrust of this thing has a huge turquoise ring on his finger,” Nichols said. “He’s a great big huge guy and I equated him to a car salesman.”
What he was selling was a prison for women and children who were illegal immigrants.
“They talk [about] how positive this was going to be for the community,” Nichols said, “the amount of money that we would realize from each prisoner on a daily rate.”
But Nichols wasn’t buying. He asked them how would they possibly keep a prison full for years — decades even — with illegal immigrants?
“They talked like they didn’t have any doubt they could fill it,” Nichols said.
That’s because prison companies like this one had a plan — a new business model to lock up illegal immigrants. And the plan became Arizona’s immigration law.
Research Credit: JH
Cryptogon Backchannel Blog
October 28th, 2010Some of you might be interested in this:
https://www.cryptogon.com/backchannel/
“Let’s get real,” Prof. Kotlikoff says. “The U.S. is bankrupt.”
October 28th, 2010Via: The Globe and Mail:
Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff says U.S. government debt is not $13.5-trillion (U.S.), which is 60 per cent of current gross domestic product, as global investors and American taxpayers think, but rather 14-fold higher: $200-trillion – 840 per cent of current GDP. “Let’s get real,” Prof. Kotlikoff says. “The U.S. is bankrupt.”
Writing in the September issue of Finance and Development, a journal of the International Monetary Fund, Prof. Kotlikoff says the IMF itself has quietly confirmed that the U.S. is in terrible fiscal trouble – far worse than the Washington-based lender of last resort has previously acknowledged. “The U.S. fiscal gap is huge,” the IMF asserted in a June report. “Closing the fiscal gap requires a permanent annual fiscal adjustment equal to about 14 per cent of U.S. GDP.”
This sum is equal to all current U.S. federal taxes combined. The consequences of the IMF’s fiscal fix, a doubling of federal taxes in perpetuity, would be appalling – and possibly worse than appalling.
‘Coal Country’ Documentary, Aired on Planet Green, Called Potential Threat by PA Dept of Homeland Security
October 28th, 2010Via: Treehugger:
I don’t know if we should be flattered or scared: It’s come to TreeHugger’s attention that Coal Country, a documentary which originally aired on Planet Green’s Reel Impact series of programing last November, was singled out at the time as a potential security threat by the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security…
Afghanistan: Russia Steps in to Help NATO
October 28th, 2010Rare earth minerals for everyone who helps NATO steal them.
In other news: Coalition Win Impossible: Gorbachev.
Via: Independent:
Russia has agreed to return to the war in Afghanistan at the request of the Western states which helped the mujahedin to drive its forces out of the country 21 years ago.
The Independent has learnt that Moscow is engaged in training the Afghan army and counter-narcotics troops and has agreed in principle to supply Nato with several dozen helicopters for use in Afghanistan.
A number of aircraft have already been sold to Poland, a member of the US-led coalition, for use in the conflict. Now Nato is in talks with the Russians over direct supplies of more helicopters, training the pilots, and allowing arms and ammunition to be transported through Russian territory as an alternative to a Pakistani route which has come under repeated Taliban attack.
A groundbreaking agreement with Russia on the issue is likely to be announced at the Nato summit next month in Lisbon, which is due to be attended by President Dmitry Medvedev.
