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Wednesday 09.07.2011

WikiLeaks drops bombshell on gold market; GATA right again!
Dominique de Kevelioc de Bailleul - SilverBearCafe.com
With an avalanche of ever-tantalizing news stories and upcoming nail-biting scheduled officialdom events in both Europe and the U.S. all hitting the gold market at once in September, discerning the story that could propel some distance from Jim Sinclair's exosphere target of $1,764 in the gold price weighs heavily in favor of the WikiLeaks story and its potential explosive impact on the price of gold from today's $1,900 print to Sinclair's ultimate target of $12,000+.
Though the European financial crisis soap opera moves from Greece and Portugal to, now, Italy and Germany, shifting temporarily away from France, with Belgium's dirty laundry on deck in case there's a lull in the action, the WikiLeaks release of a U.S. State Department internal cables on the subject of Beijing's plan for undermining the U.S. dollar through the gold market even trumps theIsrael/Turkey potential gray-swan military conflict brewing in the Mediterranean (could ex-CIA operative Robert Baerbe right about an Israeli attack in the region by the fall?).

'Helicopter Ben' May Deter Lending With Lower Rates Policies,
Gross Says
By Garfield Reynolds - Bloomberg.com
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke risks causing a decline in longer-term lending by holding down benchmark interest rates, Bill Gross, who runs the world’s biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., said in an opinion piece on the Financial Times website.

The Future For Most Americans:
Pathetic Jobs, Bad Debts And A Crappy Economy
EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
Sorry to break this to you, but the future for most Americans is going to be pretty crappy. Unless you are independently wealthy, the chances are good that you will have a low paying job, that you will be drowning in a sea of bad debts and that you will have to go on government assistance at some point. Most American families are completely dependent on their jobs for income, and right now good jobs are disappearing at a frightening pace. Over the last couple of decades, millions of high paying manufacturing jobs have been shipped out of the country and they are being replaced by low paying service jobs. Small business creation is being absolutely crushed by the federal government, and millions of illegal immigrants have been allowed in to the country and they are now competing for the limited number of jobs that are still available. The vast majority of the money and the vast majority of the power in this country are now in the hands of either the big corporations or the government. Together, the big corporations and the government are absolutely crushing everyone else. If you are not part of the "privileged class", there is a good chance that your job is serving them. Perhaps you are bringing them lunch or cutting their hair or stocking shelves for them. Once upon a time, America was "the land of opportunity", but now that has all changed. Tomorrow morning, millions of Americans will get up and go to pathetic, low paying jobs and millions of others will wonder why they can't find anyone to hire them. Sadly, if nothing is done to reverse the long-term trends that are destroying our economy, the number of "working poor" is going to continue to increase.

On the Edge:
Max Keiser & Paul Craig Roberts (Inflationary Depression)

Is China Buying Gold to Challenge the U.S. Dollar?
By: Eric McWhinnie - Telegraph.co.uk

"International supervision over the issue of U.S. dollars should be introduced and a new, stable and secured global reserve currency may also be an option to avert a catastrophe caused by any single country."
-China's official news agency Xinhua

Gold (NYSE:GLD) and silver (NYSE:SLV) are often viewed by investors as a hedge against uncertainty. Although the two precious metals (NYSE:DBP) can cause heated debates about their role in an individual portfolio, many would agree even a small percentage of a portfolio should be in gold or silver. A study released earlier in the year by Oxford Economics recommends holding at least 5% of your assets in gold. What if countries apply these principles to their reserve holdings? The rising price of gold and silver has caught the attention of economic powerhouse, China (NYSE:FXI).

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Refuse to Be Used
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
As a reminder, the choice between inflation and deflation in a fiat currency system that is not otherwise externally constrained is a policy decision.
In a democratic republic that is also a net debtor with a trade balance problem, the most likely outcome from a financial credit contraction is stagflation.
However, this does not mean that deflation is not possible. I want to be completely clear on this point. A program of artificial austerity, in which painful cuts are visited upon the bulk of the people, further exacerbating slack aggregate demand, with the creation of national wealth flowing to the top few percent, makes a prolonged deflation, economic stagnation, and a national misery, possible.

Swiss Franc Collapses Against the Dollar
and Gold as Central Bank Plans to Debase Currency
By: GoldCore - MarketOracle.co.uk
Currency markets have seen massive volatility this morning after the Swiss National Bank decision to fix the Swiss franc to the euro.
Gold is trading at USD 1,899.50, EUR 1,339.10, GBP 1,177.30, CHF 1,611.10 (up from CHF 1,486.50 yesterday) and JPY 146,350 per ounce. Gold is down 0.18% in dollar terms and strong physical demand continues at these levels.

Gold May Rebound as Swiss Franc Ceiling
Reduces Haven Investment Options
By Glenys Sim - Bloomberg.com
Gold may rebound after falling the most in a week yesterday as investors sought to protect their wealth against declining currencies and economic turmoil.
Gold for immediate delivery was little changed at $1,874.80 an ounce at 8:52 a.m. in Singapore. It fell 1.3 percent after touching a record $1,921.15 yesterday as the Swiss central bank set a ceiling on theexchange rate, strengthening the dollar for a sixth day against a six-currency basket including the franc.

Gold prices test $1900/oz again as macro insecurity persists
LONDON (Commodity Online): Price action was mixed across the complex at the start of the week amid reduced liquidity given the US public holiday. Gold and Platinumextended their gains while Palladium and Silver edged lower.
Gold prices gained 0.8% to close at $1899/oz, above platinum prices, as European sovereign debt issues and concerns over the state of the global economy persist. Gold prices gained despite the dollar strengthening against the euro, while platinum prices gained 0.3% to close at $1884/oz.

Gold rally extends on global economic worries
SINGAPORE (Commodity Online) : Gold prices continued their journey towards north on escalating global economic concerns, driven by Europe debt worries.
Gold for immediate delivery was seen trading at $1912.03 an ounce at 1.00 p.m Singapore time after hitting as high as $1912.91 an ounce in early trade.
US gold for December delivery in was at $1,912.40 an ounce at the same time after hitting as high as $1916 in early trade.

Dollar, gold strong on worries about European Monetary Union
By Allen Sykora
The U.S. dollar and Gold are strong on worries about the "very efficacy of the European Monetary Union," says Dennis Gartman, publisher of The Gartman Letter.
"The situation in Europe is becoming more and more severe with each passing day, and we are approaching that time when each nation is now looking out properly for its own best interests, and the people of Europe are considering what it is that shall serve them best," Gartman says in his daily report.

140 Years Of Silver Volatility
Antal E. Fekete - SilverBearCafe.com
An interview was published on July 6, 2011, with the titleEric Sprott - Paper Markets Are a Joke: Prepare for Bullion Prices to Go Supernova. Interviewer: Chris Martenson, Ph.D. One of the questions Martenson asked was gold versus silver as an investment. Sprott came out on the side of silver that should trade at the hallowed gold/silver price ratio of 16 to 1. His argument is that gold and silver coins are destined to come back and circulate, so while the gold coinage will take care of large, the silver coinage will take care of small purchases - just as they did when the monetary system of the United States was established at the turn of the 18th century.
Gold at $1900 and silver at $45 gives you a gold/silver price ratio of 46. This suggests that in spite of the fast appreciation of silver for the past year, it has to keep appreciating faster still in the future to meet the target ratio of 16 to 1. Let's accept, for the sake of argument, that Sprott's figure 16:1 is where the gold/silver price ratio will ultimately stabilize. We may as well admit that Sprott's theory is intellectually seductive. However, it is strewn with pitfalls tempting investors to their downfall.

Bob Chapman - Liberty Round Table - September 5, 2011

Is the euro doomed?
By Ben Rooney @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- After a summer fraught with uncertainty, investors in Europe returned this week from holiday to find the eurozone sovereign debt crisis may actually be getting worse.
The European Union made a grand gesture in July, promising more bailout money for Greece and pledging additional support for other nations with massive debts and weak economies.
But the situation has deteriorated since then. In August, stock markets across Europe went into a tailspinthanks to a deteriorating global economic outlook.

When it comes to the crunch with the euro, economics will trump law
As the euro crisis has intensified, so the previously unthinkable has become the subject of widespread discussion. People have woken up to the idea that the euro could break up.
By Roger Bootle - Telegraph.co.uk
But everywhere you hear the same refrain: how do you break up a monetary union? And if it cannot be broken up then surely it must hold together.
There is no provision in any European Treaty for a country to leave the eurozone. That was deliberate. It was intended to make it clear that the eurozone was forever – like the Soviet Union and the Holy Roman Empire. But in fact you cannot legislate for changing economic conditions or changes in peoples' attitudes.
Countries have left monetary unions before. When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, several new currencies had to be invented out of nowhere. Yes, there was chaos – and there would surely be chaos for a time in the eurozone. But it could be done. When it comes to the crunch, what is and is not in the European Treaties will become irrelevant. Economics will trump law.

Eurozone Deathwatch
By: Mike Whitney - Telegraph.co.uk
There's no way to overstate the calamity that's unfolding across the Atlantic. The eurozone is imploding. The smart money has already fled EU banks for safe quarters in the US while political leaders frantically look for a way to prevent a seemingly-unavoidable meltdown. Here's an excerpt from a post at The Streetlight blog that explains what's going on:

"...ECB data seems to indicate that monetary financial institutions (MFIs) in Europe have been moving their deposits out of European banks. Where is that money going?....

European banks are shifting their cash assets out of European banks and putting much of them into US banks. ... This has happened at a significant rate, with a net transatlantic flow from European to US banks that probably totals close to half a trillion dollars in just six months.

Switzerland abandons floating exchange rate
in dramatic 'currency war' twist
The era of global "currency wars" has taken a dramatic turn after Switzerland abandoned its floating exchange rate, setting a floor against the euro to counter safe-haven flight from eurozone debtors.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
The Swiss national bank (SNB) said it would "no longer tolerate" a euro rate below 1.20 francs. "The SNB will enforce this minimum rate with the utmost determination and is prepared to buy foreign currency in unlimited quantities. The massive overvaluation of the franc poses an acute threat to the Swiss economy and carries the risk of a deflationary development," it said.
The franc plummeted against all major currencies, falling 9pc against the euro as markets opened on Tuesday. The Swiss action will be studied closely in Norway, Singapore and above all Japan, where the yen has also rocketed to levels that threaten to blight exporters and tip the country into deep deflation.

German austerity drive risks Euro-slump
German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble has vowed to halt rescue payments to Greece unless the country complies totally with the EU-IMF demands, brushing aside warnings that a Greek collapse would set off a disastrous chain reaction and a global banking crisis.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
"The next tranche can be paid only when the conditions have been met. There is no room for manouvre here," he told the Bundestag. Yields on 10-year Greek debt spiked to a fresh record of 19.8pc on fears of a disorderly default.
The tough words reflect sentiment in Berlin that Greece should be left to its fate or even be ejected from the monetary union, even though the chief reason Greece has failed to meet its deficit target is the crushing effect of recession. The economy will have shrunk by 12pc by the end of this year, playing havoc with debt dynamics.

Keiser Report: Cheap Slaves of Deflation (E178)

The Tyranny of Zombie Economics in America
How a stubborn misreading of classical economists -- combined with a hyper-partisan Republican Party -- haunts the U.S. economy -- By Jared Bernstein - TheAtlantic.com
The story of where we are is a story of the destructive ideas that guided us here. Bad ideas about how capitalism works--ideas that fail to describe how economies actually function--have combined with conservative politics to promote policies that stifle growth, redistribute what growth there is upward, skew our fiscal outlook, and handcuff our policy process.
We are like travelers who have followed a road map to a destination that promised bliss but instead delivered stagnation and joblessness to many and political dysfunction to all. The economic geography behind that roadmap is a misreading of the original mapmakers--the founders of free markets--which eventually morphed into the deeply damaging belief that markets never fail and always self-correct; and therefore, government actions can only distort otherwise self-correcting markets.

Making Way for the Era of Sovereign Default
By Eric Fry - DailyReckoning.com
09/06/11 Laguna Beach, California – American investors returned from their Labor Day holiday to face another laborious trading day on Wall Street. As your California editor pecks away at his keyboard this afternoon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down more than 200 points to within spitting distance of 11,000.
For the first three trading days of September 2011, the Dow has tumbled more than 600 points — or about 5% — the worst three-day start for the month of September in the history of the US stock market. (Thanks to CNBC for this utterly meaningless statistic).

"Fraud As a Business Model"
By Janet Tavakoli - HuffingtonPost.com
There were many factors that contributed to our recent financial bubble: deregulation, cheap money from the Fed, failure to enforce remaining regulations, crony capitalism, hubris, speculation, leverage, and fraud among other problems. While fraud wasn't the only issue, it was and is a significant contributor to the credit bubble. Restraining fraud is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a sound financial system. Congressional investigations in recent years have put ample evidence of fraud in the public domain.

Gerald Celente: Economy is going to get much worse

Whither the Post Office?
By Megan McArdle - TheAtlantic.com
.... Congress has given the Post Office two incompatible mandates. It is to make money like a business . . . but it is not to have any of the freedom that businesses have to, say, close branch offices, cut its delivery area, or change delivery schedules.
This is, to put it mildly, lunatic.
It was kindasorta somewhat sustainable for a while, because Congress sweetened the deal with a very valuable monopoly over the delivery of first class mail--a fact over which conservatives used to complain bitterly. But now that monopoly is an albatross. The only people who really need the service are the people who it is incredibly expensive to serve: those in remote areas that are far from stores, and only spottily serviced by UPS, Fedex, and broadband. So average cost is rising fast, while rates can't.

Roubini: Slowdown Brings Forward New Crisis
By Scott Hamilton - Bloomberg.com
Nouriel Roubini, co-founder and chairman of Roubini Global Economics LLC, said the current slowdown in the world economy has brought forward the timing of a new financial crisis.
"I thought a few months ago that the perfect storm would be 2013," Roubini said in an interview in London today. "But now, the economic weakness in the U.S., euro zone and the U.K. is front loaded. So we’re going to double dip earlier. The climax of it could be 2013, or it could be already earlier. It depends on what policy tools are available."

Treasury Approves $4.3 Billion for Small Business Lending Fund
By Ian Katz and Cheyenne Hopkins - Bloomberg.com
The U.S. Treasury Department approved $4.3 billion for 382 financial institutions as part of its Small Business Lending Fund.
The Treasury has completed more than $1.8 billion in funding for 130 lenders, according to a department white paper obtained by Bloomberg News today. Of 932 applications received, more than 40 percent “failed to meet minimum statutory or program requirements and therefore could not be approved,” the Treasury paper said. Those requirements include size of the bank and whether it had missed dividend payments.

Central Banks, BIS and Goldman Sachs Coercion
by Sartre - SilverBearCafe.com

"The few who understand the system, will either be so interested from it’s profits or so dependent on it’s favors, that there will be no opposition from that class.”- Rothschild Brothers of London, 1863

Did you ever wonder why countries allow private central banks to issue their money? Somehow, missing in the self-governing status of governments is the courage to deny the seduction or the threats of the global banking cabal, over the control of a nation’s currency. How did this obvious usurpation of independence become an unquestioned acceptance by the very governments who proclaim to be sovereign nations? The answer reveals that the right of autonomous government is now dependent upon the approval of the banking cartel. The myth that a historic country can exert their populist will and financial self-determination, when it conflicts or opposes the interest and objectives of the moneychangers, is outright fantasy.

Government to Sue Banks - Peter Schiff

Gary Foster, Ex-Citigroup VP, Admits Embezzling Over $22 Million
Reuters - HuffingtonPost.com
NEW YORK - A former vice president for Citigroup Inc pleaded guilty Tuesday to embezzling more than $22 million from the company and funneling the money to his personal bank account.
Gary Foster, 35, pleaded guilty to bank fraud, admitting that he took the money between 2003 and 2010. He appeared in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn before Judge Eric Vitaliano.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Yaeger said the government will request a prison sentence of between 97 months and 121 months. Foster will remain free on $800,000 bail until he is sentenced.

It's a terrible world for the markets
By Paul R. La Monica - Money.CNN.com
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- With apologies to Louis Armstrong:
I see few stocks in green. Oil is in red too. I see their values shrink. For me and for you. And I think to myself: What a terrible world.
I see dark skies over the U.S. and Europe. To safety in bonds we take flight. The VIX is on fire. Each day and every night. And I think to myself: What a terrible world.
Yup. The market volatility that defined August is sadly still with us in September. So much for the unofficial end of summer being the end of summer market madness.

North Dakota Fights Wall Street's Influence With a State Bank
What can we learn from North Dakota's economy?
Plenty, and it starts with its unique state bank.
By Ellen Brown - Yes! Magazine - Alternet.org
In an article in The New York Times on August 19th titled “The North Dakota Miracle,” Catherine Rampell writes:
Forget the Texas Miracle. Let’s instead take a look at North Dakota, which has the lowest unemployment rate and the fastest job growth rate in the country.
According to new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today, North Dakota had an unemployment rate of just 3.3 percent in July—that’s just over a third of the national rate (9.1 percent), and about a quarter of the rate of the state with the highest joblessness (Nevada, at 12.9 percent).
North Dakota has had the lowest unemployment in the country (or was tied for the lowest unemployment rate in the country) every single month since July 2008.

Keiser Report: Greed of No Boundaries (E179)

THE TOO BIG TO FAIL AND THE TOO SMALL TO MATTER
By Diane Mesgleski - ML-Explode.com
Ironically, just when most Americans were preparing to kick off their Labor Day Weekend, we were given the alarming news that NO new net jobs were created in the month of August. Happy Labor Day! And in the same week we received interesting news from our Too Big To Fail friends. Bank of America exiting the correspondent lending business and laying off scores. Goldman Sachs getting the OK to sell their mortgage servicing arm, Litton, in exchange for promises that they will discontinue breaking the law. BofA announcing plans to sell off Merrill Lynch. This after Warren Buffets "generous" bailout which they called "unnecessary." And lastly, the FHFA suing several banks for misleading Fannie and Freddie. And all of this amidst disturbing rumblings that these same Titans are going to need an additional bailout on top of the one trillion dollars they already received. Especially if they lose that lawsuit.

Obama's stimulus gambit
By Charles Riley @CNNMoney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Now is the time for action.
That's the message the White House is bringing to Congress as lawmakers return to work this week.
In a major speech Thursday night, President Obama is expected to argue that the government must do more to spur job growth, investment and economic expansion.
"I'm going to propose ways to put America back to work that both parties can agree to, because I still believe both parties can work together to solve our problems," President Obama said in a speech on Labor Day.

Uncle Sam is a reluctant landlord of foreclosed homes
Washington has issued a plea to the public for ideas on how to get rid of houses
By Lorraine Woellert and Clea Benson - MSNBC.com
For sale or rent by distressed owner: 248,000 homes. That’s how many residential properties the U.S. government now has in its possession, the result of record numbers of people defaulting on government-backed mortgages. Washington is sitting on nearly a third of the nation's 800,000 repossessed houses, making the U.S. taxpayer the largest owner of foreclosed properties. With even more homes moving toward default, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration are looking for a way to unload them without swamping the already depressed real estate market.
Trouble is, they haven't figured out how to do that. The government admitted as much in August, when Fannie, Freddie and FHA issued a joint plea to the public for ideas about how to solve the problem. (Give it your best shot: You have until Sept. 15 to email ideas to reo.rfi@fhfa.gov.) "They’re stuck," says Karen Shaw Petrou, managing partner of Federal Financial Analytics, a Washington-based consultant that advises banks and other clients on government policy. "They don't know what to do."

Banks Offered a Deal on Foreclosure Flaws—Will They Bite?
Probably not: they will hold out for the best deal they can get to eliminate as much uncertainty as possible
By Daniel Indiviglio - TheAtlantic.com
These days, it's hard to keep all of the mortgage-related lawsuits against banks straight. Investors are suing banks over bad mortgage-backed securities, claiming that securitization procedures were flawed. The Federal Housing Finance Agency has also filed lawsuits, saying that banks misled Fannie and Freddie about the quality of the mortgages underlying the bonds they purchased. Finally, states are suing big banks over their foreclosure practices, alleging that they didn't follow the law. The banks have reportedly been offered a settlement on that last suit by the group of state attorneys general. Unfortunately, the deal the states are offering isn't likely to be accepted.
Shahien Nasiripour at the Financial Times reports on the latest progress in the settlement talks. He writes:

Though the counteroffer attempts to release the banks from liability with respect to home repossessions, and explicitly states that the release does not include securitisation claims, the language is broad enough in that it could prevent state officials from bringing securitisation claims in the future should they sign up to the agreement.

A View of the Long-Term Trends in the Housing Market
By Bill Bonner - DailyReckoning.com

09/06/11 New York, New York –
"And they shall grind the face of the poor…" — Isaiah

The markets were closed yesterday. Which was a good thing. The lights were out in Congress. Economists went to barbecues. Central bankers stayed home with their families. And investors didn’t bother to check their blackberries to find the latest prices.
In other words, it was a good day. We didn’t hear anything stupid or see anything idiotic. At least, not in the world of money. Or, that part of it within the 50 states. Besides, we were too busy to pay any attention anyway.
We went to a wedding in Manhattan. One of the people we met was a professional real estate investor:
"Everybody wants to get into real estate," he began. "I don’t mean homeowners. Nobody wants to buy a house to live in. But people keep asking me to place money for them. They want to get into real estate.

Obama plan may not be enough to fix jobs market
Short-term spending boost can't repair deeper damage,
economists say -- By John W. Schoen - MSNBC.com
Even if President Barack Obama can win political support for a sweeping new government program to create jobs, he may have a tougher time providing more than a temporary, quick fix, say economists.
The real problem, they say, is that households and governments are still recovering from the widespread damage done by a historic borrowing binge that will take years to repair.
The details of the White House's jobs proposal, to be laid out in a much-anticipated speech Thursday night, are still being finalized. The plan is expected to call for increased federal spending to rebuild roads, bridges and other infrastructure across the country. Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, so far have rejected the idea as wasteful spending.

Obama May Soon Join America's Unemployed
BY DAVID ZEILER, Associate Editor, Money Morning
It may not be long before U.S. President Barack Obama joins the swollen ranks of America's unemployed.
A government report released Friday showed no job growth in August.
President Obama is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress Thursday night with his latest proposals on how to reduce the nation's stubborn 9.1% unemployment rate.
He faces numerous obstacles, including a glum economic outlook that has held employers back from hiring, public dissatisfaction with how he has handled the economy, and an uncooperative mood among congressional Republicans who have spoken openly of making him a one-term president.
At this point everyone in Washington realizes that high unemployment is probably Obama's greatest obstacle to re-election in 2012.

BofA job cuts could reach 30,000
(Reuters) - Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) executives are discussing plans to potentially shed 25,000 to 30,000 jobs over the next several years, the Charlotte Observer said.
Bank of America executives are still working on the final plans regarding the workforce reduction, which could reach much more than 10,000 jobs, the Charlotte Observer reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Job cuts at the biggest U.S. bank, which the Wall Street Journal had reported could rise to 10,000 in the coming months, come on the heels of the bank's stock plunging over 40 percent since the beginning of this year.

Obama's 2012 hopes may rest on jobs plans
By James Pethokoukis - Rueters.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters Breakingviews) – The guy sitting in the Oval Office wins re-election some 70 percent of the time. But a weak economy can even the odds. U.S. President Barack Obama is preparing a big speech on job creation for Thursday in the hope of regaining the initiative. As things stand now, though, by some economic forecasts he may be a slight underdog for a second term. Still, Republicans need an acceptable candidate and a positive message to take advantage in next year’s election.

Working-age poor population highest since '60s
3 out of 5 below the poverty line
are now adults between 18 and 64
By HOPE YEN - AP - MSNBC.com
WASHINGTON — Working-age America is the new face of poverty.
Counting adults 18-64 who were laid off in the recent recession as well as single twenty-somethings still looking for jobs, the new working-age poor represent nearly 3 out of 5 poor people — a switch from the early 1970s when children made up the main impoverished group.
While much of the shift in poverty is due to demographic changes — Americans are having fewer children than before — the now-weakened economy and limited government safety net for workers are heightening the effect.

The Coming Global Water Crisis

Leon Panetta Tours September 11 Memorial Park,
Says Threat Of Another Terrorist Attack 'Remains Very Real'
By ROBERT BURNS, AP - HuffingtonPost.com
NEW YORK -- After a decade of war with al-Qaida the potential for another devastating terrorist assault "remains very real," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday following a somber visit to ground zero of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
The Pentagon chief walked through the National September 11 Memorial park and museum with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and afterward told reporters that Americans must remain vigilant against the threat of another successful al-Qaida attack.
"The potential for that kind of attack remains very real," he said from the 10th floor of 7 World Trade Center, the first completed office tower at the site where hijacked commercial airliners were flown into the Twin Towers, killing more than 2,700 people.

Inside the Christian Right Dominionist Movement
That's Undermining Democracy
Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin have all flirted with Christian Right Dominionism, but there's lots of misinformation about just what that means.
By Chip Berlet - Public Eye - Alternet.org
Dominionists want to impose a form of Christian nationalism on the United States, a concept that was dismissed as eroding freedom and democracy by the founders of our country. Dominionism has become a major influence on the right-wing populist Tea Parties as Christian Right activists have flooded into the movement at the grassroots. At the same time, legitimate questions have been raised about whether or not potential Republican presidential nominees Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, or Sarah Palin have moved from a generic form of Christian Right Dominionism toward the more totalitarian form know as Dominion Theology.
Clueless journalists and crafty Christian Right pundits have mocked the idea that Dominionism as a religiously motivated political tendency even exists. Scholars, however, have been writing about Dominionism for over a decade, some using the term directly, and others describing the tendency in other ways.

Hoffa responds, reaffirms tea party remarks
By: CNN Producer Gabriella Schwarz
(CNN) - Teamsters President Jim Hoffa stood by comments he made at an event Monday, where he referred to Republicans as "sons of bitches," after receiving criticism from members of the tea party movement, including Sarah Palin.
In a statement Tuesday, Hoffa said his comments at the event echoed the sentiments of American workers who are "under attack by corporate-funded politicians who want to destroy the middle class."
"We're tired of seeing good-paying jobs shipped overseas. This fight is about the economy, it's about jobs and it's about rebuilding America," Hoffa said. "As I said yesterday in Detroit, we all have to vote in order to take these anti-worker politicians out of office."

Gerald Celente Internet nuke bomb waiting to go off

Growing Proof of Obama's Imperial Presidency
By Ken Blackwell, co-authored by Ken Klukowski - PatriotPost.us
President Barack Obama's National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is on a job-killing rampage. It's claiming unprecedented powers far beyond what federal law allows. Taken with Obama's other agencies, these executive actions paint a picture of what has become an imperial presidency.
A federal appeal is certain once NLRB's shocking attack on Boeing Co. goes through the administrative process. In a free-market society, government bureaucrats cannot dictate to a private company where they can and cannot open factories or create jobs. Boeing -- whose general counsel was formerly one of the most brilliant federal judges in America, Michael Luttig -- should win this court battle.

The Untold Story in Libya:
How the West Cooked Up the "People's Uprising"
Wait! Did the West just engineer the overthrow of another unpopular regime to get at an easy supply of oil?
By Russ Baker - WhoWhatWhy.com - Alternet.org
As I write this, a new day is dawning in Libya. The "people's revolt" against yet another tyrant is unquestionably exciting, and the demise (political and/or otherwise) of Muammar Qaddafi will, of course, be widely hailed. But barely below the surface something else is going on, and it concerns not the Libyan "people", but an elite. In reality, a narrowly-based Libyan elite is being supplanted by a much older, more enduring one of an international variety.
The media, as is so often the case, has botched its job. Thus virtually all of its resources over the past six months have gone into providing us with an entertainment, a horse race, a battle, with almost no insight into the deeper situation..

Is Civil War in Syria Inevitable?
Why the country appears on track for the worst,
and what happens when it gets there
By Hussein Ibish - TheAtlantic.com
The prospects for a full-blown and largely sectarian civil war in Syria are mounting by the day. Much of the Syrian opposition, dedicated to non-violence, appears extremely reluctant to even consider the prospect. But as President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown worsens, as the options for any other means of achieving regime change seemed to dwindle, and with the Libya model presenting itself, however imprecisely, as an alternative stratagem, the drift towards conflict is starting to feel palpable.
The Syrian Powder Keg
In some senses, all of the required element are already in place for a civil war to erupt. In recent weeks some of the opposition has been slowly suggesting a greater willingness to accept the use of arms. There are hints that arms and financing for weapons are being delivered by outside forces. And increasing numbers of the rank-and-file Syrian military are defecting. Together, these factors could prepare the nucleus for an armed rebel group. The emergence of a significant and potentially effective armed rebel group in Syria is now readily imaginable.

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