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Friday 04.13.2012

Bernanke's Warning:
We Stand on the Precipice of Economic Destruction
By Kurt Nimmo - Infowars.com
Earlier this week, Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernankeagain warned that out of control borrowing and spending will eventually destroy the country.
Said Ben to the the Budget Committee:

Sustained high rates of government borrowing would both drain funds away from private investment and increase our debt to foreigners, with adverse long-run effects on U.S. output, incomes, and standards of living. Moreover, diminishing investor confidence that deficits will be brought under control would ultimately lead to sharply rising interest rates on government debt and, potentially, to broader financial turmoil. In a vicious circle, high and rising interest rates would cause debt-service payments on the federal debt to grow even faster, resulting in further increases in the debt-to-GDP ratio and making fiscal adjustment all the more difficult.

But here is something Bernanke didn't mention – a large chunk of that debt is owed to the Federal Reserve. In February, the corporate media fessed up to this undeniable fact. From CNBC:

IMF: Gold Is Scarce "Safe Asset"
and "Growing Shortage of Safe Assets"
BY MARK O'BYRNE - FionancialSense.com
Gold fell $0.90 or 0.05% in New York yesterday and closed at $1,658.10/oz. Gold has been trading sideways in Asian trading and remains in a tight range in Europe this morning near $1,656.07/oz.
Gold remains supported this morning as the ECB signalled that it would intervene in the debt markets on worries about Spain and the risk of contagion in the Eurozone. ECB board member Benoit Coeure said "the European Central Bank still has its bond-buying programme as an option".

Contra Bernanke on the Gold Standard
Mises Daily: by Frank Shostak
In his lecture at George Washington University on March 20, 2012, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said that under a gold standard the authorities' ability to address economic conditions is significantly curtailed. The Fed chairman holds that the gold standard prevents the central bank from engaging in policies aimed at stabilizing the economy after sudden shocks. This in turn, holds the Fed chairman, could lead to severe economic upheavals. According to Bernanke,

Since the gold standard determines the money supply, there's not much scope for the central bank to use monetary policy to stabilize the economy.… Because you had a gold standard which tied the money supply to gold, there was no flexibility for the central bank to lower interest rates in recession or raise interest rates in an inflation.

Gold rallies on hopes for more easing
By Claudia Assis and Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Gold futures rose on Thursday, getting a boost from a weaker dollar and rising U.S. stocks and as talks surfaced of another round of economic stimulus in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Gold for June delivery rallied $20.30, or 1.2%, to settle at $1,680.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange
Other precious and base metals also benefitted, with silver leading gains.
Support was underpinned by a weaker dollar and rising U.S. stocks, analysts said.

China buying gold?
India has not recovered — so why the rebound?
By Peter Brimelow, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Gold's rebound puzzles the bugs — but they'll take it anyway.
It helps to have luck — or something! Michael Gayed's brave column yesterday, "Was that the bottom in gold?, published just after gold closed with an impressive $16.80 rise in the CME June gold contract, was not followed by an immediate reversal. June gold closed today down only 40 cents, so the gains were held. See April 10 column.
In contrast, my own recent cheerful chat about gold was followed by a horrible $57.90 drop in gold the next day.

Gold, Inflation, Other Factors!
by Ian R. Campbell - StockResearchPortalBlog.com
Why Read This: Because it is a balanced article on physical gold that those who now own it, or are considering owing it, ought to read.
Featured Article: An April 11 article questions whether physical gold indeed is "the ultimate inflation hedge". In essence, the article says:

• one reason investors purchase gold is because it is considered a hedge against inflation;
• in its 2012 Investment Returns Yearbook, Credit Suisse Global says gold "can fail" and there's history to prove it;
• finding assets that protect purchasing power is the primary reason for investors to attempt to hedge;

Keiser Report: Return of the Silver Liberation Army (E273)
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss the return of the Silver Liberation Army as JP Morgan's Blythe Masters claims the bank does not manipulate silver prices. They also discuss JP Morgan's 'London whale' breaking the credit default swap (CDS) index market with massive prop position. In the second half of the show Max talks to author, Pierre Jovanovic, about Blythe Masters role at JP Morgan and the similarities between the world today and France of the 18th century on the eve of revolution.

The War at the End of the Dollar
BY RON HERA - FinancialSense.com
The history of the U.S. dollar is closely linked to U.S. involvement in a series of wars. The Bretton Woods Accord and the resulting world reserve currency status of the U.S. dollar were both byproducts of World War II (1939-1945). The Korean War (1950-1953) was followed six years later by the Vietnam War (1959-1975) which led to the end of the Bretton Woods system. Unfettered by the constraint of gold backing after 1971, the U.S. dollar became a weapon in the Cold War (1945–1991) between the U.S. and the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). Each war corresponded with an increase in the U.S. money supply. The Gulf War (1990-1991) was followed by wars in Afghanistan, beginning in 2001, and in Iraq, beginning in 2003, and, simultaneously, by the U.S.-led War on Terror that began in 2001. Like the wars that came before them, the recent staccato of U.S. wars is correlated with increases in the U.S. money supply. The Iraq war, for example, is estimated to have cost as much as $4 trillion.

Dollar falls after Fed comments, Italian auction
Italy's bond sale comes as 'hardly a ringing endorsement'
By Deborah Levine and William L. Watts, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The U.S. dollar declined Thursday after a second Federal Reserve official highlighted risks to U.S. economic growth, remaining lower against the euro after Italy managed to sell benchmark three-year bonds and other debt in a closely watched auction.
The Australian dollar was one of the best performers of the day after stronger-than-expected Australian jobs data.

Time to put the doomed euro out of its misery
Europe can't accept that the economics
of the single currency condemn it to failure.
By Jeremy Warner - Telegraph.co.uk
There is no mess quite so bad that official intervention won't make it even worse. Nowhere is this old saw more applicable than in the eurozone, where only a month or so back, leaders were warmly congratulating themselves on having seen off the worst of the debt crisis. As is apparent from the events of the past week, these hopes were not just premature, but naive. The crisis is once again intensifying, with the focus of attention switching from Greece to Spain.
The European Central Bank's flooding of the banking system with cheap money didn't solve the problem, or provide more than short-term relief for its symptoms. After a brief period of remission, they are returning. At best, the ECB bought a little time. This has not been used well. Instead, the eurozone has just ploughed on with the same old set of failed policies.

IMF may need less money to rebuild warchest: Lagarde
(Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund is considering scaling back how much money it needs to rebuild its war chest for handling financial crises, and it may not strike a deal with members next week, the IMF head said on Thursday.
"We need to cautiously reassess, and yes we are reassessing to a lower number in terms of risk, which will bring me to probably reassess a lower number of additional resources needed. I am not fixated on any particular number yet," IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said.

Euro crisis enters a more lethal phase
Europe's future is not up to the Bundesbank
By George Soros - FT.com
Far from abating, the euro crisis has recently taken a turn for the worse. The European Central Bank relieved an incipient credit crunch through its longer-term refinancing operations. The resulting rally in financial markets hid an underlying deterioration; but that is unlikely to last much longer.
The fundamental problems have not been resolved; indeed, the gap between creditor and debtor countries continues to widen. The crisis has entered what may be a less volatile but more lethal phase.
At the onset of the crisis, the eurozone's break-up was inconceivable: assets and liabilities denominated in the common currency were so intermingled that it would have caused an uncontrollable meltdown. But, as the crisis has progressed, the eurozone has been reoriented along national lines.

Will There Be A "Corralito" In Spain?
How Spain could exit the eurozone—a practical guide.
By Gonzalo Lira - Blogspot.com
In late 2001, while everyone was in shock over 9/11, the Argentines were going through a little shock of their own: The "Corralito".
Argentina was bankrupt, a product of a stagnant economy, rampant crony-corruption, and—most important of all—of having its currency fixed to the dollar. This currency peg had created a huge credit bubble, and of course massive capital outflows as a result, eventually leading to the depletion of foreign reserves by the government and an inability to raise more funds on the open markets.
In other words, sovereign bankruptcy.

Gerald Celente The Alex Jones Nightly News - 11 April 2012

24 Outrageous Facts About Taxes
In The United States That Will Blow Your Mind
By Michael Snyder - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
The U.S. tax code is a complete and utter abomination and it needs to be thrown out entirely. Nobody in their right mind would ever read the whole thing - it is over 3 million words long. Each year, Americans spend billions of hours and hundreds of billions of dollars trying to comply with federal tax requirements. Sadly, it is the honest, hard working Americans in the middle class that always get hit the hardest. The tax code is absolutely riddled with loopholes that big corporations and the ultra-wealthy use to minimize their tax burdens as much as possible. Many poor people do not pay any income taxes at all. The dishonest are rewarded for cheating on their taxes (if they can get away with it) and the ultra-wealthy have moved trillions of dollars to offshore tax havens where they can avoid U.S. taxation altogether. Our system is incredibly unfair to the millions of hard working people in the middle class and upper middle class that drag themselves out of bed and go to work each day and try to do the right thing. In addition, the current U.S. tax system is incredibly inefficient, it diverts a tremendous amount of resources away from more valuable economic activities, and it has chased thousands of businesses and trillions of dollars out of the United States. The U.S. tax code is such a complete and utter mess at this point that it can never be "fixed". The only rational thing to do is to abolish it completely, and any politician that tells you otherwise is lying to you.

Keiser Report: Somali Style! (E274)
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert debt fondue and Central Banks. They also talk about Somalia's stable shilling and the lesson it holds for Europe. In the second half of the show Max talks to professor and economist, Constantin Gurdgiev about the new book of essays he's edited - What if Ireland defaults? They discuss the good cop, bad cop routine by the Troika in Ireland and what lessons can be drawn from the Russian default of the late 90's.

The Bottomless Pit
by MIKE WHITNEY - CounterPunch.org

"There are many good reasons to believe that the 5.5 million foreclosures we have seen are barely halfway through their full course. The United States may end up with a total of 8-10 million foreclosures before we are finished." – Barry Ritholtz, The Big Picture

It all gets down to supply and demand. The banks have been keeping millions of homes off the market until a settlement was reached in the $25 billion robosigning scandal. Now that the 49-state deal has been finalized, the banks are preparing to put more of their of distressed homes up for sale. That will lead to lower prices and the next leg down in the 6-year long housing crisis.
According to Reuters, new foreclosures "begun by Deutsche Bank were up 47 percent from 2011. Those of Wells Fargo's rose 68 percent and Bank of America's, including BAC Home Loans Servicing, jumped nearly seven-fold — 251 starts versus 37 in the same period in 2011."

Could the Housing Bubble Reinflate?
By Karl Smith - TheAtlantic.com
My baseline scenario for the U.S. included a rapid increase in the number of multifamily housing units and a general return to renting.
However, a few factors are combining to make me think that an alternate scenario, one in which the single-family housing bubble returns, is increasingly likely.
First, multifamily starts simply aren't increasing as fast I thought they would. This means that rent pressure will be even more severe, and quite plainly there simply won't be enough apartments to absorb all of the newly forming families.

IMF chief Lagarde calls for U.S. mortgage relief
By Howard Schneider - WashingtonPost.com
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde called on the U.S. government to reduce the mortgage debt owed by homeowners as a way help to revive the nation's economy and stimulate growth in the wider industrialized world.
Speaking Thursday at the Brookings Institution, Lagarde urged that this relief be extended to loans held by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The issue of whether to reduce mortgages held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, representing more than half of U.S. home loans, has become contentious in Washington in recent months.

Homeless Americans on the rise
By Lisa Karpova - Pravda.ru
Millions of Americans may lose homes for debt
Millions of Americans are at risk of losing their homes due to mortgage debt. The finding is by a group of experts from the International Monetary Fund, haning prepared an analytical report on the prospects of the global economy.
"About 2.5 million owners of apartments and homes in the U.S. have lost their homes. Other 1,500,000 have systematically gotten behind on payments . So they, too, are in danger of their losing homes," the report says.

Southern California rental market getting more expensive
The average L.A. County rent is predicted to soar nearly 10% by the end of 2013. Rising rents could help usher in a housing market recovery if enough renters take the plunge into buying.
By Alejandro Lazo, Los Angeles Times
The average Los Angeles County rent is predicted to soar nearly 10% over the next two years, leading a resurgence of the costly Southland apartment lifestyle.
Southern California's economic recovery may be halting and tepid, but young workers gaining new employment, a demand for apartment living and scarce construction of units are creating a rental squeeze in the region, according to a report released Wednesday by USC's Lusk Center for Real Estate.

Obama Hammered for 'Jetting Around,'
Taking Vacations While Americans Suffer
BY DANIEL HALPER - WeeklyStandard.com
President Obama, during an interview with St. Louis's KMOV, was hammered for "jetting around, [taking] different vacations and so forth, sometimes ... under the color of state business." The interviewer, Larry Conners, suggested even that folks "get frustrated, even angered" seeing the president take these trips, and told Obama that these Americans think he's "out of touch, that [Obama doesn't] really know what they're experiencing right now."

In Interview, Obama Pressed
On Taking So Many Vacations While Americans Suffer

Obama healthcare could worsen U.S. debt: Republican study
By John Crawley
(Reuters) - Instead of curbing government spending, President Barack Obama's healthcare law could add up to $530 billion to the federal debt over ten years, a Republican expert on U.S. government benefit programs said on Tuesday.
A study by Charles Blahous, a George Mason University research fellow and the Republican trustee for the Medicare and Social Security entitlement programs for the elderly, challenged the administration's contention that the 2010 law would reduce healthcare costs.

What's next? Step One after Obamacare
Even before Election Day,
block grants are cleaning up Democrats' mistake
By Grace-Marie Turner - WashingtonTimes.com
Obamacare is on the rocks, and the heart of the law - the individual mandate - or the whole thing could be struck down by the Supreme Court. Whatever the court does, the voters could finish the job in November.
In anticipation, a great deal of work is being done behind the scenes on Capitol Hill, in the states and in the think-tank community to talk about what's next.
Medicaid reform is at the top of the list. Medicaidis the worst health care program in the country - a dismal program that finances care for low-income Americans but condemns them to long waits in emergency rooms to get even routine care. The program pays doctors so little and requires so much paperwork that few can afford to see more than a few Medicaid patients.

Profiling the Supremes
by ELAINE CASSEL - CounterPunch.org
As a lawyer and teacher of psychology, I have more than a passing interest in the intersection of behavior and the law. Three days of Supreme Court hearings on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) were an intellectual feast for me. The first time I listened to the audio tapes, the day of their release, I was riveted by the legal arguments, which ran the gamut from profound and compelling, to specious and ridiculous. On second listening, more leisurely and over the weekend via C-Span Radio, I was struck by how personality traits were conveyed in the justices' comments and questioning.
This was particularly apparent in the arguments in the afternoon of Day 3, when the state of Florida argued that the required Medicaid expansion was so coercive that it had to be stricken (unless, of course, the court threw out the entire law, in which case the argument is moot). Little attention has been paid to this afternoon of argument, perhaps because the issue was not as sexy as the individual mandate and severability. In short, the law requires the states to significantly expand access to Medicaid. The federal government will pay 90% of the cost. If the states don't expand access, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, who administers Medicaid, may withdraw funds from the states for services not included in the ACA.

The Kochs Don't Appreciate Being a Liberal Caricature
The conservative industrialists continue to play a totemic role in leftist demonology, but they don't have to like it.
By Molly Ball - TheAtlantic.com
At this point, the status of the Koch brothers as figures of cartoonish conservative evil in the liberal imagination is well cemented. They've become shorthand, to those on the left, for the craven, heartless greed of the unfettered capitalistic impulse -- stock figures in Democratic efforts to rile up the base. But this is not how the Kochs see themselves, it turns out. And so Charles and David Koch continue to wage a battle, probably fruitless, to fight what they see as their unfair demonization.

DAMNED LIARS AND SOCIAL SECURITY
by Dale Coberly - AngryBearBlog.com
There are liars, damned liars, and "non partisan experts." The non partisan experts are expert liars, "non partisan" because that's the best lie of all. A damned liar need not be an expert, but he is usually pretty clever at mixing "true" facts, or at least "facts you can't prove are not true," with false implications that lead the people he wants to deceive into hurting themselves with false conclusions. Those false conclusions are ideally tied to other ideas that the mark really, really wants to believe, so he is never really able to let go of the lie he has been taught.

The 10 Fastest Dying Industries in America
By DailyFinance Staff
The rise of cheap imports, technological advancements and the financial crisis have collectively delivered a harsh blow to some U.S. industries.
IBISWorld is out with a list of 10 American industries that have seen sharp revenue declines, a fall in industry participants and a declining life cycle stage between 2002 and 2012.
Some of the worst hit industries include newspaper publishing, women's and girls apparel manufacturing and appliance repair industries.

Jobless claims cast cloud on labor market
By Lucia Mutikani
(Reuters) - The number of Americans filing for jobless aid hit a two-month high last week and more applications were received in the prior week than initially reported, suggesting a cooling in the labor market recovery.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 13,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 380,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday, defying economists' expectations of a drop to 355,000. The prior week's count was revised to show 10,000 more applications than previously reported.

US adds 13,000 to unemployment rolls
in latest disappointing claims report
Some economists had expected jobless benefits claims to fall, but increase is instead the largest in nearly a year
By Dominic Rushe in New York - Guardian.co.uk
The number of new claims for unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly last week in another sign of the fragility of the recovery in the US jobs market.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 13,000 to 380,000 in the week ending 7 April, the largest rise in nearly a year, the labor department said. Economist polled by Reuters had been expecting claims to fall to 355,000.

Sony to cut 10,000 jobs, turn around TV business
By Malcolm Foster - WashingtonTimes.com
TOKYO (AP) — Faced with mounting losses,Sony Corp. said Thursday it will slash 10,000 jobs, or about 6 percent of its global workforce, and try to turn around its money-losing TV business over the next two years.
New CEO and President Kazuo Hirai outlined his business strategy at a big press conference where he pledged to revive the electronics and entertainment company. Sony earlier this week more than doubled its annual net loss projection for the fiscal year through this past March to 520 billion, or $6.4 billion. That would be its fourth straight year of red ink and worst loss ever.

Tom Woods Hosts the Peter Schiff Show, April 10, 2012
Tom Woods interviews authors Jeffrey Tucker and Bill Kauffman; they talk Ron Paul, the miraculous but despised free market, decentralism, Steve Jobs, and more

Catholic bishops issue 'call to action' on religious freedom
By Julian Pecquet - TheHill.com
All Americans should be "on guard" as the Obama administration threatens religious liberty, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops declared Thursday.
The call to action is spelled out in a document, "Our First, Most Cherished Liberty," developed by the conference's Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty. It urges laity to work to protect the First Amendment and calls on dioceses across the country to schedule a "religious liberty fortnight" June 21 to July 4 to focus "all the energies the Catholic community can muster" for religious liberty.

Can Online Education Be Both Successful and Good for Us?
By Kanyi Maqubela - TheAtlantic.com
We're witnessing the beginning of a much-needed revolution in education.
What would it take to create wildly profitable, culturally effective online education system? How could the system reflect the marketplace demands of an era of technology, and provide tangible resources for students to find and create opportunity? What would that look like?
Chances are it would not look quite like either the online education kingpin, University of Phoenix, or the many startups in the space. But there are elements from each that might make their way into a truly effective online educational system.

Are schools Facebook's next conquest?
Facebook, the Dark Horse in the Education Revolution
Its return to the past could reveal the network's future.
By Megan Garber - TheAtlantic.com
Facebook, famously, started as a service for college students -- a phenomenon of, by, and for the particular social setting of the American university. Back in the early days of TheFacebook, a dot-edu email address was a ticket to a web platform that promised its members a new kind of public intimacy: There was sharing, yes, but it was sharing that was confined to a select group of classmates and friends. In the early days of the service, you could post a photo of a night out without fear of your Aunt Millie seeing and/or commenting on said photo.

Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?
Social media—from Facebook to Twitter—have made us more densely networked than ever. Yet for all this connectivity, new research suggests that we have never been lonelier (or more narcissistic)—and that this loneliness is making us mentally and physically ill. A report on what the epidemic of loneliness is doing to our souls and our society.
By STEPHEN MARCHE - TheAtlantic.com
YVETTE VICKERS, A FORMER Playboy playmate and B-movie star, best known for her role in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, would have been 83 last August, but nobody knows exactly how old she was when she died. According to the Los Angeles coroner's report, she lay dead for the better part of a year before a neighbor and fellow actress, a woman named Susan Savage, noticed cobwebs and yellowing letters in her mailbox, reached through a broken window to unlock the door, and pushed her way through the piles of junk mail and mounds of clothing that barricaded the house. Upstairs, she found Vickers's body, mummified, near a heater that was still running. Her computer was on too, its glow permeating the empty space.

Argentina poised to seize Repsol assets,
endangering shale dream
Argentina was poised on Thursday night to launch the forced takeover of assets from the Spanish energy group Repsol, risking a diplomatic showdown with Spain and scaring investors needed to unlock the country's vast shale gas reserves.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
Spain's industry minister Manuel Soria said Madrid would not stand idly by if Spanish companies are attacked. "If there are hostile moves towards those interests anywhere in the world, the government will interpret them as hostile moves against Spain. These acts of hostility will have consequences."
The clash came as Argentina's leader Cristina Fernandez prepared a TV address to announce the fate of YPF, the Argentine oil group controlled by Repsol. Argentina's press said President Fernandez plans to seize YPF on "public interest" grounds, invoking the country's hydro-carbon law to gain majority control. She has been tightening the noose on Repsol over recent months by withdrawing operating licences, accusing Repsol of failure to invest adequately in its Argentine operations. The company denies the claim.

Beijing's power struggle is bigger than America's
The backdrop to the events surrounding Bo Xilai is provided by a huge debate about the country's future
By Martin Jacques - Independent.co.uk
The news that Bo Xilai has been stripped of his positions on the Communist Party Politburo and Central Committee and that his wife, Gu Kailai, is being held on suspicion of murdering a British businessman has added a dramatic new twist to a story that first began to break in February. The dismissal of Bo, the former Chongqing party chief, surely marks the end of his political career. It also suggests that the path to the crucial Communist Party Congress in the autumn, when, in effect, a new President and Premier will be elected and seven of the nine-member standing committee that runs China will be replaced, could run somewhat smoother.

Iran nuclear program talks
reveal internal divisions between diplomats
World powers at odds on key issues
ahead of nuclear talks with Iran
By Joby Warrick and Thomas Erdbrink - WashingtonPost.com
ISTANBUL — The six world powers gathering here for nuclear talks beginning Friday are finding themselves divided over how best to curb Iran's ambitions while defusing the possibility of a new military confrontation in the volatile Middle East.
Officials from the six countries that will bargain with Iran have acknowledged in recent days significant differences over what a nuclear accord should look like and under what conditions Iran could be granted partial relief from international sanctions that have put an unprecedented squeeze on the economy there.

Clinton Warns North Korea
of Consequences of Missile Launch
By Nicole Gaouette and Sangwon Yoon - BusinessWeek.com
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged North Korea to "refrain from provocation" and warned of consequences if it doesn't, as the first day of North Korea's timetable to fire a long-range rocket passed.
"We urge the North Korean leadership to honor its agreements and refrain from pursuing a cycle of provocation," Clinton said yesterday after a meeting in Washington of foreign ministers from the Group of Eight -- Russia, Italy, the U.K., France, Canada, Japan, Germany and the U.S.

North Korea Rocket Launch Countdown — Day One Over
By WSJ Staff - WSJ.com
Japan has been holding its collective breath Thursday morning, waiting for news that North Korea had launched — over some of its southernmost islands — what North Korea says is a satellite and Japan, the U.S. and South Korea say is a missile.
The news at high noon on day one of the April 12-16 launch window: "No movement," as one Japanese TV network reported. North Korea has said it will confine the launch to a time frame between 7 a.m. and noon, local time.

This one fizzled...
North Korea launches long-range rocket
US and South Korean officials report that the launch from a base in the north-west of the country has failed
Staff and agencies - Guardian.co.uk
North Korea has launched a long-range rocket, according to US and South Korean officials. In Washington, officials said the launch from a base in the north-west of the country has crashed into the sea.
UN security council will meet to discuss the rocket launch and a possible response, according to reports.
There was no word from Pyongyang about the launch of what they describe as an observation satellite.

North Korea: ROCKET LAUNCH FAILED!!! CNN LIVE!!!

North Korean Rocket Launch Fails

The Ring Of Fire Is Roaring To Life
And There Will Be Earthquakes Of Historic Importance
On The West Coast Of The United States
By Michael Snyder - EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
Does it seem to you like there has been an unusual amount of seismic activity around the world lately? Well, it isn't just your imagination. The Ring of Fire is roaring to life and that is really bad news for the west coast of the United States. Approximately 90 percent of all earthquakes and approximately 75 percent of all volcanic eruptions occur along the Ring of Fire. Considering the fact that the entire west coast of the United States lies along the Ring of Fire, we should be very concerned that the Ring of Fire is becoming more active. On Wednesday, the most powerful strike-slip earthquake ever recorded happened along the Ring of Fire. If that earthquake had happened in a major U.S. city along the west coast, the city would have been entirely destroyed. Scientists tell us that there is nearly a 100% certainty that the "Big One" will hit California at some point. In recent years we have seen Japan, Chile, Indonesia and New Zealand all get hit by historic earthquakes. It is inevitable that there will be earthquakes of historic importance on the west coast of the United States as well. So far we have been very fortunate, but that good fortune will not last indefinitely.

Government Secrets-What Obama Knows about
Dec 21 2012- Full part 1

Government Secrets-What Obama Knows about
Dec 21 2012- Full part 2

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