Is the dollar terminal?

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 13th, 2010, 10:42 am

What Is MERS and What Role Does It Have in the Foreclosure Mess?

What has 60% of the nation’s residential mortgages but 0 employees?

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/what-m ... osure-mess

....highly recommended read for insight into the current foreclosure mess....for more you'll need to watch "Inside Job" with article about it linked below...

JPMorgan Chase's CEO says the bank has stopped using the electronic mortgage tracking system used by major financial institutions. Lawyers have argued in court proceedings that the system is unable to accurately prove ownership of mortgages. And after the effective foreclosure moratorium is about to cripple the RMBS market, here comes the collapse in CMBS.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/jpmorg ... orget-cmbs

Breaking: Officials In 49 States Launch Foreclosure Probe
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/offici ... sure-probe

The economic crisis was an 'inside job'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 03723.html

Discovery Of Suspicious Package Causes Lock Down At Palo Verde Nuclear Plant In Arizona
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/discov ... nt-arizona

Officials in 50 states launch foreclosure probe
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101013/ap_ ... res_states

Drug war bloodshed tarnishes Mexico's richest city

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) – Once an oasis of calm, Mexico's richest city has become a central battleground in the country's increasingly bloody drug war as cartels open fire on city streets and throw grenades onto busy highways.

Escalating violence in Monterrey, one of Latin America's most affluent cities and seen as a symbol of Mexico's economic prowess, is arguably the most dramatic development in Mexico's four-year campaign against powerful drug cartels.

Firefights are spilling into leafy suburbs, putting ordinary Mexicans and foreigners at risk and raising the stakes for President Felipe Calderon as he faces pressure to protect a city generating 8 percent of Mexico's gross domestic product.

"The violence is now impacting the economy. Supermarket projects and jewelry stores are just two areas of frozen investment," said Juan Ernesto Sandoval, the head of Monterrey's commerce, retail and tourism chamber.

Sandoval said over 60 percent of the chamber's member businesses had received extortion threats this year.

Companies are spending 5 percent of cash flow on security, a cost that was nonexistent just four years ago, while firms selling alarms, locks and cameras in Monterrey have seen a 20 percent jump in annual profits in three years, he said.

The violence in Monterrey, with its sleek U.S.-style highways, private universities and walled homes belonging to top businessmen, may do more to shape the response to Mexico's drug war than the years of steady bloodshed in places like Ciudad Juarez, the poor, desert factory city to the west.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101013/ts_ ... xico_drugs
Bold and Underline mine

If you want investment advice.....

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 13th, 2010, 12:22 pm

Unemployment update - Arizona

background: as I understand it nearly all of the states collect their funds and then turn it over to the Treasury in the April/May time frame (some small quarterly injections but the bulk by nearly all of the states is in May).

Arizona blew through their trust fund and started borrowing March 22nd of this past year accumulating a debt of $52.3 million on April 20th which they then reduced and paid off by May 5th with tax collections. At the end of May they had $72.6 million in their trust fund account at the Treasury. They stayed out of unemployment debt until June 28th. By August 2nd they were back up to $53.1 million in debt but collected and injected the previous quarters tax collections to boost their trust fund and reduce the debt to $26 million on August 6th. Since August 6th though they've never looked back and as of yesterday had increased their unemployment debt to $141.3 million.

Chump change compared to California....who can borrow that amount in a day....I know but the point is - expect a tax increase in 2011. Also the amounts may be small for some states like Idaho ($202.4 million) but when you spread that over the taxable employment base....it doesn't look pretty (top 10 in the nation for unemployment debt per household)!

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 15th, 2010, 11:49 am

Significant amounts of rare earth elements are produced in only a few countries. China is the dominant producer of rare earth elements and is believed to be responsible for over 95% of the world mine production on a rare earth oxide equivalent basis. Other countries with notable production in 2009 were: Brazil, India, Kyrgyzstan and Malaysia. Minor production may have occurred in Indonesia, Commonwealth of Independent States, Nigeria, North Korea and Vietnam (3). The United States Geological Survey reports that significant exploration and new mining activity is expected from Canada and Australia (3).

http://geology.com/articles/rare-earth-elements/

America’s “Angel(s) of Death”
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/ar ... :11:35:38Z

The Real Danger From the Foreclosure Crisis

Just four firms dominate the trustee market for mortgage-backed securities in which the mortgages aren't guaranteed by Uncle Sam: Deutsche Bank, U.S. Bancorp, Bank of New York Mellon, and HSBC serve as trustees for 70.5 percent of all such issuance since 2005, according to Asset-Backed Alert, an industry newsletter and data provider. An additional four firms -- Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup -- control 29.1 percent, Asset-Backed Alert data show.

All told, these eight firms have served as trustees for 99.6 percent of all private-label mortgage-backed securities issued since 2005.

Rosner told Elliot Spitzer, the banks and rating agencies knew that 28% of the loans which the banks securitized and sold to pension funds and other investors didn't meet underwriting standards. And yet they turned around and processed them into sausage (securitized them) and sold them to investors, representing that they did meet underwriting standards.

Rosner said that the rating agencies apparently intentionally avoided looking into this, since the more deals they approved, the more profits the rating agencies got. [For background on the financial incentive of rating agencies to give high ratings to literally anything, see this.]

And Rosner points out that - knowing about the high percentage mortgages which failed to meet underwriting standards - the big banks then bet against the housing market.

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2 ... risis.html

.....soon to be consolidated into one I think.....and even perhaps with an explicit government label....

Pentagon Chief Asserts US “National Interest” in China Seas
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=21451

16 New Records That The American Economy Has Set During The Past 12 Months - And They Are All Bad
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... re-all-bad

FOX NEWS ALERT! BOOGEYMAN TERRORIST IN THE US AND COULD BE ANYWHERE!
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=32518

Will A Bill Requiring A National Referendum Before Relinquishing Land In Jerusalem And The Golan Heights Become Law In Israel?
http://themostimportantnews.com/archive ... -in-israel

No Social Security Increase Next Year
http://www.angrybearblog.com/2010/10/no ... ry+Bear%29

Who Got Stimulus Dollars? What Jobs Were Created?
http://seekingalpha.com/article/230172- ... re-created

The preliminary Reuters-University of Michigan consumer sentiment index edged lower in October, falling to 67.9 ... from 68.2 last month.

This was a big story in July when consumer sentiment collapsed to the lowest level since late 2009. It has moved sideways since then ...

NY Fed Manufacturing index increases in October

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29

On a monthly basis, retail sales increased 0.6% from August to September (seasonally adjusted, after revisions - August sales were revised up), and sales were up 7.3% from September 2009. This is an easy YoY comparison because of the slump in auto sales last September following Cash-for-Clunkers.

Retail sales increased 0.4% ex-autos - about at expectations.

Retail sales had moved mostly moved sideways for six months, but this is now the high for the year.

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29

Retail Sales for September came in better than expected at .6% when the consensus was looking for .4%. This is absolutely one of the poorest measurements in terms of reading the economy. This report should be called “Same Store Retail Sales” as it suffers from substitution bias because it fails to adjust for stores that have gone out of business. Let’s say there’s a strip mall with five stores in it. Four of the five completely fail and go bye-bye… that leaves one store whose business actually picks up because there’s no competition. Since that store’s sales picked up, it would be reported as an increase in sales even though the total amount of sales may have fallen of a cliff and 4 out of 5 workers lost their jobs. This is exactly what is happening and it is why this is such a misleading report.

http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2010/1 ... 14_15.html

Retail Sales Rise More Than Forecast; Once Again I Ask "Really?"

Retail sales may be at their best point in the year, but sales are certainly not within 3% of the all time high. If they were tax revenue collection would be exceeding all time highs given increases in sales taxes.

Sales Tax Collections Down 5.9% June 2010 vs. June 2008

In spite of numerous sales tax hikes, tax collections are still 5.9% lower than two years ago. Moreover, June of 2008 was not the pre-recession peak. November of 2007 was the pre-recession peak.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29

Lawmakers Agree: Defense Spending Should Stay on the Table
http://www.fiscalaccountability.org/ind ... =101410DoD

Inflation Targeting Proposal an Exercise in Blazing Stupidity; Fed Fools Itself
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29

Homeland Security And Spy Agency To Work Together

The partnership unveiled Wednesday raised concerns among civil liberties advocates, who say that safeguards are needed to ensure that the collaboration between the spy agency and Homeland Security does not wind up violating the privacy rights of U.S. citizens.

NSA and Homeland Security officials both said they are creating small teams that will work in the other agency's operations centers, a move designed to help them share lawfully gathered intelligence and provide Homeland Security faster access to the NSA's broad technical expertise.

http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i ... &Itemid=33

Three Sides of The Same Figure: Blackwater, Monsanto and Gates

A report by Jeremy Scahill in The Nation (Blackwater's Black Ops, 9/15/2010) revealed that the largest mercenary army in the world, Blackwater (now called Xe Services) clandestine intelligence services was sold to the multinational Monsanto.

Blackwater was renamed in 2009 after becoming famous in the world with numerous reports of abuses in Iraq, including massacres of civilians. It remains the largest private contractor of the U.S. Department of State "security services," that practices state terrorism by giving the government the opportunity to deny it.

Many military and former CIA officers work for Blackwater or related companies created to divert attention from their bad reputation and make more profit selling their nefarious services-ranging from information and intelligence to infiltration, political lobbying and paramilitary training - for other governments, banks and multinational corporations. According to Scahill, business with multinationals, like Monsanto, Chevron, and financial giants such as Barclays and Deutsche Bank, are channeled through two companies owned by Erik Prince, owner of Blackwater: Total Intelligence Solutions and Terrorism Research Center. These officers and directors share Blackwater.

One of them, Cofer Black, known for his brutality as one of the directors of the CIA, was the one who made contact with Monsanto in 2008 as director of Total Intelligence, entering into the contract with the company to spy on and infiltrate organizations of animal rights activists, anti-GM and other dirty activities of the biotech giant.

Contacted by Scahill, the Monsanto executive Kevin Wilson declined to comment, but later confirmed to The Nation that they had hired Total Intelligence in 2008 and 2009, according to Monsanto only to keep track of "public disclosure" of its opponents. He also said that Total Intelligence was a "totally separate entity from Blackwater."

http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i ... Itemid=114

Rosenberg Still Sees Deflation Despite Consistent Speculative "Limit Up" Opens In Pretty Much Everything

Despite every commodity opening limit up virtually every day for the past two weeks on expectations of a free money tsunami about to be unleashed (and a 14th weekly increase in M2 which we will describe shortly), David Rosenberg still adheres to the belief that deflation is not only here to stay but get worse. And, frankly, we don't disagree. It has long been our contention that the sublimation from deflation to hyperinflation will not pass through the inflation phase at all (or it may, but will last for exactly one millisecond as $3 trillion, by then, excess reserves are released and send every price up by a few quadrillion percent).

Despite a speculative equity market binge, a weakening U.S. dollar, an economy that seemingly avoided a double-dip recession last quarter, and a renewed boom in commodity prices, what continues to prove elusive in this illusory recovery is pricing power in the broad retail sector.

How apropos it was for Ben Bernanke to utter the word “deflation”, not once, but twice, in his Boston speech this morning. Because fifteen minutes later, the September consumer price index data were released and showed a goose-egg — that is 0% — on the key core CPI measure (which excludes food & energy), for the second month in a row. In the past, this has happened but 7% of the time, so it is a rare enough an event to at least mention.

The headline rate of inflation, despite everything that has been thrown at it in terms of unprecedented monetary, fiscal and bailout stimulus, sits at 1.1% today. The core rate, proven to be the key driver for bond yields, which is why it is a focal point, is now running at a mere 0.8% year-over-year rate, the lowest since March 1961 when Ben Bernanke was in grade school.

While QE1 may have worked in terms of bringing mortgage and corporate spreads out of orbit and preventing an all-out contraction in the money supply, it has not managed to stop the economy from sputtering, the unemployment rate from remaining near 10%, and underlying inflation from grinding lower. Consider for a moment that when the Fed first hinted at QE1 in December 2008, the jobless rate was 7.4% and the core inflation rate was 1.8%.

While commodity prices have been firming of late with the downdraft in the dollar, what is key is that we are seeing discernible deflationary trends evolve in many segments of the service sector. Movies, personal care services, hotels, delivery services, and education all deflated last month — education deflated at its fastest pace ever. This is no longer just about rents, which are now stabilizing.

Moreover, despite what the price of cotton is doing, clothing prices are still in decline, and other “goods” such as furniture, appliances, audio-video equipment, motor vehicles and home improvement all posted price declines last month as well.

For all the talk of how higher Chinese wages were going to be transmitted to higher prices of these imported items, it does not seem to be happening. Either that, or margins for several retailers are in the process of being crushed. The latest National Federation of Independent Business Sentiment Survey showed that company-pricing plans are virtually nonexistent. Therefore, it would make sense to assume that once we get pass this bump in the form of a weaker U.S. dollar and surging commodity prices, the risks of deflation will intensify again.

All the efforts to date have only managed to slow the pace of decline in consumer prices; they have not prevented core inflation from hitting four-decade lows.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/rosenb ... uch-everyt

....just printing (creating enough credit - government & private) to control the rate of descent while transferring power. If we descended too fast they would lose power......and if we flat line they don't gain it fast enough. Tricky business!

Well, we’ve reached the point at which the mainstream media is finally beginning to understand that the US recovery of 2009 was actually an accounting fiction and that the “green shoots” were just a stupid metaphor.

Indeed, just this morning, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke all but guaranteed he will introduce a large QE 2 program sometime in the near future… which essentially proves not only that QE 1 failed, but that the US economy is on the ropes (why else would we need more emergency policies?).

Let’s put this in perspective…

The US Fed is already buying between $8-12 billion in US debt per week as courtesy of its QE lite program. Moreover, the Fed has been juicing the market on 12 of the last 13 options expiration weeks. So QE 1, for all intensive purposes, NEVER ended.

And now, our illustrious Fed Chairman is talking about introducing even MORE QE? Just how awful have things gotten that we’ve got ONE QE program occurring and they’re already talking about introducing a second LARGER one at the same time?

Well, according to US CEOs things are flat out awful… as in May 2009 BAD. According to Bloomberg:

Confidence among chief executive officers in the U.S. sank in October to the lowest level since May 2009, when the world’s largest economy was still in a recession, according to a survey from the Business Council... The group’s gauge of expectations for the economy six months from now fell to 51.7, the lowest since February 2009.

If you’ll recall, February 2009 was when everyone thought the whole world was ending. The US economy was literally falling off a cliff with initial jobless claims clearing 600,000 (a 26 year high) while the S&P 500 was collapsing on its way to the March lows of 666.

And US CEOs’ expectations for the next six months are as BLEAK as they were back then… BEFORE the Fed even introduced QE 1?

Lest you think this is merely idle talk, consider that insiders have been unloading their shares by the truckload in the last few weeks.

For the week of October 4 2010, the insider selling to buying ratio was 2,341 to 1 with insiders DROPPING $400+ million in stock and only buying a measly $170,000. This comes on the heels of September 27’s equally insanely bearish ratio of 1,411 to 1 (which by the way was preceded by weeks with ratios of 250 to 1 and 650 to 1).

In plain terms, corporate insiders, the folks who know their business and its prospects better than anyone are dumping shares as fast as humanly possible. They are literally putting their money where their mouths are when they say the US economy is AWFUL and business prospects are on par with those of February 2009 (before Bernanke even thought up that stupid “green shoots” nonsense).

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/want-r ... y-talk-ceo

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 17th, 2010, 9:17 pm

The world's strongest tropical cyclone of 2010 is Super Typhoon Megi, which intensified into an extremely dangerous Category 5 super typhoon with 180 mph winds this morning. We are fortunate to have a hurricane hunter aircraft in Megi, as part of the Interaction of Typhoon and Ocean Project (ITOP), which is studying how the ocean responds to typhoon growth and movement in the Western Pacific Ocean. As part of ITOP, a C-130 hurricane hunter aircraft was in Megi this morning, and measured some truly remarkable winds and pressures. At 8:09am EDT (12:09 UTC), the aircraft measured winds at flight level (8,000 feet) of 220 mph. The SFMR surface wind measurement instrument recorded surface winds of 186 mph in regions where heavy rain was not contaminating the measurement, but found surface winds of 199 mph in one region of heavy rain. Now, this measurement is considered contaminated by rain, but at very high wind speeds, the contamination effect is less important than at lower hurricane wind speeds, and it is possible than Megi's surface winds are close to a sustained 200 mph. This is supported by the flight level winds of 220 mph, which support surface winds of 199 mph, using the usual 10% reduction rule of thumb. The Hurricane Hunters measured a surface pressure of 893 mb at 12 UTC. This is a phenomenally low pressure, ranking Megi as the 20th strongest typhoon ever recorded in the Western Pacific. Only three Atlantic hurricane have been more intense than Megi--Wilma (2005) at 882 mb, Gilbert (1988) at 888 mb, and the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, at 892 mb. Megi's intensity easily beats out 2010's other two Category 5 storms, March's Tropical Cyclone Ului in the South Pacific and the East Pacific's Hurricane Celia of June, which both peaked at 160 mph winds. It is still possible that Megi will intensify further, as wind shear is low, less than 10 knots, SSTs are very warm, and the ocean has a very high total heat content.

Megi is poised to deal a devastating blow to the northern portion of the Philippines' Luzon Island early Monday morning. If the super typhoon's winds stay near 180 mph, the damage will be catastrophic in the regions where the eyewall makes landfall. The Philippines government is taking Megi very seriously, and has ordered evacuation of all low-lying regions in Megi's path. Equally dangerous will be Megi's torrential rains, which will likely be more than 12 inches over wide regions of northern Luzon, creating dangerous mudslides and life-threatening flash floods. Once Megi crosses Luzon, the storm is expected to re-intensify and hit the Chinese coast between Hainan Island and Hong Kong as a major typhoon on Friday.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1661

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 18th, 2010, 11:11 am

Super Typhoon Megi hit northern Luzon Island in the Philippines near 3:30 UTC this morning as a Category 5 Super Typhoon with sustained winds of 165 mph and a central pressure of 914 mb, as rated by the Navy Research Lab in Monterey. Megi is the strongest Category 5 tropical cyclone to make landfall in the world since August 21 2007, when Hurricane Dean hit Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula with sustained winds of 175 mph and central pressure of 905 mb. We were fortunate to get precise measurements of Megi's intensity yesterday morning thanks to the Hurricane Hunters, who were investigating the typhoon in support of the Interaction of Typhoon and Ocean Project (ITOP), which is studying how the ocean responds to typhoon growth and movement in the Western Pacific Ocean. A C-130 hurricane hunter aircraft penetrated into Megi at 10,000 feet, and found an extraordinarily intense storm. At 9:05am EDT on Sunday (13:09 UTC), the aircraft recorded a central pressure in Megi of 890 mb. This is a phenomenally low pressure, ranking Megi (unofficially) as the 16th strongest tropical cyclone in world history. Only two Atlantic hurricane have been more intense than Megi--Wilma (2005) at 882 mb, and Gilbert (1988) at 888 mb. As they penetrated Megi's eyewall, the Hurricane Hunters performed the standard practice of maintaining a constant "pressure altitude"--the altitude one would expect to find a 700 mb pressure at in an atmosphere at standard conditions. In order to maintain a constant pressure altitude of 10,000 feet, the aircraft was forced to descend 3,000 feet in altitude as it entered Megi's eye. The aircraft entered the eye at 7,000 feet, so the pressure in Megi's eye was what one would normally find at an altitude 3,000 feet higher in the atmosphere. The aircraft recorded a remarkable increase in temperature of 12°C (22°F) as it crossed from the eyewall into the warm eye of Megi. A 12°C rise in eye temperature is extraordinarily rare in a tropical cyclone. Equally noteworthy were Megi's winds. The Hurricane Hunters measured winds at flight level of 220 mph, which normally translates to a surface wind speed of 198 mph, using the standard 10% reduction. The SFMR surface wind measurement instrument recorded surface winds of 186 mph in regions where heavy rain was not contaminating the measurement, but found surface winds of 199 mph in one region of heavy rain. Now, this measurement is considered contaminated by rain, but at very high wind speeds, the contamination effect is less important than at lower hurricane wind speeds, and it is possible than Megi's surface winds reached sustained speeds of 200 mph. However, data from a dropsonde in the eyewall at the time supported giving Megi just 180 mph sustained winds. This is still a ridiculously strong wind, equivalent to a violent EF-4 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.

Passage over Luzon Island has weakened Megi to a still-formidable Category 3 typhoon with 125 mph winds, and Megi is pounding the northern portion of the island with torrential rains. We don't have many cities in the Philippines along Megi's path that report weather conditions, so it is difficult to know how strong the storm is. Tuguegarao, to the north of where Megi's eyewall passed, bottomed out at 978 mb pressure, had top sustained winds of 27 mph, and picked up 3.23" of rain thus far from the storm. Megi's rains, which will likely accumulate to more than a foot along a wide swath of northern Luzon (Figure 2), will create dangerous mudslides and life-threatening flash floods. Once Megi crosses Luzon, the storm is expected to re-intensify and hit the Chinese coast between Hainan Island and Hong Kong as a major typhoon on Friday.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1662

Philippines May Lose 600,000 Tons Rice as Supertyphoon Megi Makes Landfall

The Philippines, the world’s biggest rice buyer, may lose 600,000 metric tons of the crop as Supertyphoon Megi, the strongest to hit the nation this year, strikes some of the nation’s biggest producing areas, a government official said. Rice futures advanced.

“Once the typhoon hits those areas, the crop will be affected,” Agriculture Undersecretary Antonio Fleta said in a phone interview from Manila. “Even if farmers harvest the damaged rice, they’d have a hard time drying the grain. There may not be much left to sell.”

About 157,000 hectares of land planted to rice in Cagayan and Isabela provinces may be in the path of the typhoon, Fleta said. Megi has sustained winds of 270 kilometers (168 miles) per hour, the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center said, making it a Category 5 storm capable of catastrophic damage.

Half of the planted areas in the two provinces are ready for harvest and the rest are in the reproductive stage, leaving them susceptible to damage, Fleta said.

Damage to Philippine crops would come amid production losses in other countries, further curbing the global harvest and potentially sustaining a rally in prices.

Rough-rice futures have surged 43 percent from this year’s low of $9.55 per 100 pounds on June 30 as flooding in Pakistan and dry weather in the U.S. cut harvests. The contract for November delivery advanced for a fifth consecutive day today, gaining 0.3 percent to $13.655 on the Chicago Board of Trade at 12:10 p.m. Singapore time.

Yields Cut

Potential losses may boost the Philippines’ import needs by 500,000 tons, pushing prices higher in Chicago and Thailand, Chookiat Ophaswongse, former president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said by phone from Bangkok today.

“I think it may have some effect, even on U.S. rice prices,” said Chookiat, who advises the export group. Thai rice prices may rise by as much as $20 a ton, he said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-1 ... -says.html

German Outwits EU Light Bulb Ban
http://www.infiniteunknown.net/2010/10/ ... Unknown%29

(Reuters) - A German entrepreneur is bypassing a European Union ban on light bulbs of more than 60 watts by marketing his own brand as mini heaters.

Siegfried Rotthaeuser and his brother-in-law have come up with a legal way of importing and distributing 75 and 100 watt light bulbs -- by producing them in China, importing them as "small heating devices" and selling them as "heatballs."

To improve energy efficiency, the EU has banned the sale of bulbs of over 60 watts -- to the annoyance of the mechanical engineer from the western city of Essen.

Rotthaeuser studied EU legislation and realized that because the inefficient old bulbs produce more warmth than light -- he calculated heat makes up 95 percent of their output, and light just 5 percent -- they could be sold legally as heaters.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69E3FS20101015

US Claims Chinese Companies Helping Iran Build Nuclear Weapons
http://publicintelligence.net/us-claims ... r-weapons/

Texas-Mexico Border Security Carnage Update (WARNING - graphic combat photos)
http://publicintelligence.net/ufouo-tex ... ge-update/

US official: A new event "might surprise you the way 9/11 surprised us"
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=21495

The reality in pictures we can’t ignore anymore of Homeless people on the rise
http://uswgo.com/the-reality-in-picture ... e-rise.htm

Japan Goes From Dynamic to Disheartened

But his living standards slowly crumbled along with Japan’s overall economy. First, he was forced to reduce trips abroad and then eliminate them. Then he traded the Mercedes for a cheaper domestic model. Last year, he sold his condo — for a third of what he paid for it, and for less than what he still owed on the mortgage he took out 17 years ago.

“Japan used to be so flashy and upbeat, but now everyone must live in a dark and subdued way,” said Masato, 49, who asked that his full name not be used because he still cannot repay the $110,000 that he owes on the mortgage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/world ... .html?_r=1

....imagine what the cash price is for your assets in the event that credit disappeared tomorrow....

During the 20th century, the United States experienced two major trends in income distribution. The first, termed the "Great Compression" by economists Claudia Goldin of Harvard and Robert Margo of Boston University, was egalitarian.* From 1940 to 1973, incomes became more equal. The share taken by the very richest Americans (i.e., the top 1 percent and the top 0.1 percent) shrank. The second trend, termed the "Great Divergence" by economist Paul Krugman of Princeton (and the New York Times op-ed page), was inegalitarian. From 1979 to the present, incomes have become less equal. The share taken by the very richest Americans increased.

http://www.slate.com/id/2266174/

Smog over China
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=46375

In any other sphere of commerce, most people would expect an explanation when a company spent more than $1.8 million of their money — after all, in this case it works out to nearly 64% of the company’s net income from the quarter ended June 30. But most shareholders in similar situations just seem to sit back and take it.

In the meantime, there are any number of possible reasons for Obagi’s largesse — maybe the board forced him out, or maybe he wanted to go but the board felt it worth rewarding him for a job well done on the way out, to name just two. Much of the coverage of Carlson’s departure was routine, but Deborah Crowe at the L.A. Business Journal notes that the CEO had “taken heat from Wall Street over the company’s deteriorating relationship with its founder, Dr. Zein Obagi…” (The article has a few more details of the spat, a lawsuit, and a a discarded consulting agreement.)

It’s just too bad Obagi’s board didn’t bother to explain why it decide to open its checkbook to such an extent.

http://www.footnoted.com/my-big-fat-dea ... ted.com%29

Insider Selling To Buying Update: 2,019 To 1
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/inside ... to+zero%29

From the Fed: Industrial production and Capacity Utilization

Industrial production decreased 0.2 percent in September after having increased 0.2 percent in August. ... The capacity utilization rate for total industry edged down to 74.7 percent, a rate 4.2 percentage points above the rate from a year earlier but 5.9 percentage points below its average from 1972 to 2009.

This graph shows Capacity Utilization. This series is up 9.5% from the record low set in June 2009 (the series starts in 1967).

Capacity utilization at 74.7% is still far below normal - and well below the the pre-recession levels of 81.2% in November 2007.

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29

From the HuffPo: How We Can Really Help Families

The recent revelations about foreclosure processing -- that some banks may be repossessing the homes of families improperly -- has rightly outraged the American people. The notion that many of the very same institutions that helped cause this housing crisis may well be making it worse is not only frustrating -- it's shameful.
...
[T]he Obama Administration has a comprehensive review of the situation underway and will respond with the full force of the law where problems are found. The Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force that President Obama established last November has made this issue priority number one.

I hope actions follow words.

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29

....I guarantee it will be to squeeze the person who signed the IOU and not those who created (and sliced n' diced) fraudulent IOUs...then fraudulently peddling them. The government will use force to seize absolute control of the market.

Citigroup – as messed up as that company is – managed to “earn” $2.17 billion in past quarter, thus magically beating estimates. This was accomplished in large part “as the company reduced loan-loss reserves by $1.99 billion.” They say the reduced loan-loss provisions are due to “improving credit conditions.” LOL, I’d like to know which improvement they are referring to, because frankly that’s just an outright lie. Once again it’s all in the accounting and we have no idea what their models are marking to what fantasy. The government doesn’t care, they just look the other way as long as there’s no crisis TODAY.

Of course the banks work hard to PLANT stories like this one on CNN:

Housing mess: You can't stay if you don't pay

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Just because a lender screwed up your foreclosure paperwork doesn't mean that you get to stay in your house for free.

Of course, plenty of enterprising lawyers will try to tell distraught homeowners otherwise.

But the best that most delinquent borrowers can hope for is that the current flap over foreclosure documents will prompt financial institutions to grant more affordable loan modifications, experts said.

Even if the banks didn't have the paperwork required to foreclose, "that doesn't mean you'll get a free house at the end of the day," said Ira Rheingold, head of the National Association of Consumer Advocates. "There is no panacea here."

… Meanwhile, lots of lawyers are trying to capitalize on the confusion by promoting their foreclosure rescue services to troubled borrowers. But homeowners should beware of scams, Rheingold said, because if you can't make your payments, they ultimately can't help you.

Now why do you suppose a story like this would get planted in a mainstream media source? Of course it’s because they want to try to scare people into keeping up their payments, they don’t want a mass exodus of debt slaves. It’s all just a paperwork problem according to articles like this, it’s not that big of a deal, it’ll all get worked out… This type of thing is exactly how the few individuals who control the production of our money use the media in an attempt to control our minds through THEIR media outlets. If you aren’t a debt pusher, you are not a part of their club.

Treasury International Capital flows for August came in positive for the second month in a row at $38.9 Billion. This compares to July’s net inflow of a supposed $63.3 Billion. I have to say that with our $40 billion monthly deficits and bond auctions that are sucking the life out of the planet, that there is definitely some creative accounting going on over at the Treasury department. Foreign purchases of $128.7 Billion? “Net foreign acquisition of long-term securities, taking into account adjustments, is estimated to have been $111.8 Billion.” Hmmm… I’ll have to dig deeper and report back on this one, but in the meantime the report is here:

Which brings us to QE2 or QE100, whatever… this is an economy destroying move. The larger the QE, the faster and harder the economy will fall. Each effort to print money will simply make living that much harder for people whose incomes cannot rise. This will torpedo corporate earnings for all companies other than the financials partaking in the fraud. Now, should they QE and use it to help eliminate the people’s debts, THEN you would have something that moves the economy forward. But when is that going to happen? Never of course, the narcissists are still in control… for now, but their actions are eventually going to lead to their ouster.

I am very concerned that foreclosuregate could easily cause very large future deterioration in home sales, both due to falling foreclosure sales, but also due to concern over purchasing a home with a potentially defective title. It certainly won’t help.

And foreclosuregate certainly won’t help the banks. Investors who have been burned by the fraud produced by the banks are already getting more aggressive in their stance and are taking legal action against the banks. Of course the banks are not going to be able to make investors whole in the end, so this absolutely has the potential to derail the flow of credit.

http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2010/1 ... -1018.html
Bold and Underline mine

....so again....imagine if credit was cut off tomorrow.....and then the government stepped in to save the day and was the only source of new credit (new money).....

After 20+ years of deflation fighting tactics, Japan has nothing to show for its deflation fighting efforts but massive public debt.

To be sure, one can point out that US demographics are more favorable than Japan's. However, US consumers have a much bigger and much more deflationary pile of leveraged debt on their balance sheets than do most Japanese families.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29

For weeks Rene Oliveira has been traveling across Texas, warning groups as small as 20 people and as large as 2,000 about the state’s coming fiscal crisis. Many in his audiences have little idea how dire the budget situation is.

Oliveira, a state representative from Brownsville, is a Democrat who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee in a Republican-majority chamber. He was appointed to that post by the Republican Speaker, a gesture of bipartisanship that has made him the state’s official bearer of bad news. “I’m not getting a standing ovation when I’m giving these speeches,” he says.

When Oliveira and his colleagues gather for the next legislative session in January, he reports, they will have to grapple with a budget shortfall that could exceed $21 billion over two years. That’s an almost unimaginable number in Texas, where the legislature has authority to make cuts to about $87 billion of the state’s spending, the rest being mandated by federal or state statute.

Whatever the exact numbers, it’s a shock to many Texans who believed they had weathered the recession better than almost any other state. Unemployment stood at 8.3 percent in August, lower than the national average of 9.6 percent. The state created more than 129,000 jobs over the past year, more than any other state, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Also, the waves of foreclosure that have pounded California, Florida and Arizona have mostly spared Texas.

The state is in the unusual position of having a fairly robust economy and a budget crisis at the same time, a combination that has led some Texans to wonder if the fiscal fears might be overblown.

“Some people try to look at it as doom and gloom but if you didn’t have these (hard) times to reset the footprint of state government then your spending would continue to run unchecked,” says Talmadge Heflin, a former lawmaker who now directs the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an Austin think tank.

But Dick Lavine, senior fiscal analyst for another Austin group, the Center for Public Policy Priorities, says spending cuts alone won’t fix the problem. “At some point you’re going to have to start examining exemptions, closing loopholes, raising fees and looking at raising taxes,”he says.

The debate has bled into the gubernatorial campaign, with incumbent Republican Rick Perry airing ads touting the state’s strong economy while his opponent, former Houston mayor Bill White, has accused Perry of mismanaging state finances.

Plummeting sales revenue

How did the shortfall get so big?

First, the state’s sales tax returns, which had been expected to increase, dropped precipitously and unexpectedly in the 2010 fiscal year, ending the year $2 billion short of projections, although they have rebounded somewhat since then. Texas has no income tax, so it relies on sales receipts for up to 60 percent of its tax revenue, and a drop in the volatile sales tax is bound to have dramatic consequences.

Second, the Texas legislature meets in regular session only every two years. That makes it difficult for lawmakers and the executive branch to adapt to changing economic conditions. It allows shortfalls to widen for months before they are addressed. Although Perry called on all agencies to prepare 5 percent reductions during the course of the current fiscal 2010-2011 biennium, the state will almost certainly end the current cycle with a shortfall that will have to be made up before lawmakers can address the much-tougher 2012-2013 biennium.

Third, Texas used about $6 billion in federal stimulus funds to balance its current budget. That money put off the state’s obligation to deal with its shortfall until this year.

Meanwhile, the state continues to grow. Texas has added 1.2 million people since 2006 and school enrollments have increased by more than 800,000 over the past decade.

But the roots of this year’s shortfall can also be traced back to 2006, when the legislature changed the way the state’s public schools are financed. Before then, school districts relied primarily on local property taxes, which were capped at $1.50 per $100 of assessed value. A group of districts sued, arguing that reliance on the local property tax was not enough for them to provide an adequate education. The State Supreme Court agreed and tasked lawmakers to come up with an alternate way of funding school districts.

Lawmakers lowered local property taxes down to $1.00, but allowed school districts to raise them to $1.04 with a vote of the school board and to $1.17 with a local referendum. The legislature agreed to make up the difference in funding and increased the state’s corporate income tax accordingly. Those tax revenues have not met expectations, however, and state officials have found themselves responsible for a larger share of school funding than they had hoped.

“We just postponed the day of reckoning with the temporary cash on hand and the stimulus,” Lavine says.

It doesn’t help that state government has provided little information about the shortfall so far. By law, the state comptroller has until January to release revenue projections and Susan Combs, the current comptroller, has resisted requests from Democratic lawmakers to unveil her projections ahead of time.

The comptroller’s last official report, issued in November 2009, predicted a modest increase in sales tax revenue but an overall drop in state revenues. But documents submitted to Wall Street ratings agencies this summer showed the state collected $6.5 billion less than forecast in 2010.

The uncertainty has left candidates free to use conflicting numbers. Perry, citing the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Republican Steve Ogden, has disputed the $21 billion shortfall figure and pegged the gap at closer to $11 billion. An aide to Ogden said the chairman was busy campaigning for reelection and was not available to discuss the budget. Oliveira, meanwhile, says the shortfall will hit at least $21.5 billion and will likely climb higher.

Fears of a sweep

Texas has more than $8 billion in a rainy day fund that would help cover part of the shortfall, if lawmakers chose to tap into it. Agencies have also been asked to prepare 10 percent cuts from their current budgets. If approved, the cuts would entail laying off thousands of employees but would bring $4 billion in savings. Officials have said they will try to protect K-12 education from this round of cuts.

Human services advocates are already rallying to defend pet projects. Among the Perry administration’s proposals is a plan to cut about $21 million out of the state’s child abuse and neglect prevention programs, a cut that would eliminate most of their funding. These programs are vulnerable because they are among a relatively few that are not mandated by the federal government.

Besides service cuts, Texas officials are considering a sweep of previously dedicated funds into the general fund to balance the books. Texas operates hundreds of dedicated funds, which raise money for specific causes, such as state parks, conservation programs and trauma centers. Together those funds have an available balance of roughly $3.7 billion. The state has used that money in the past to back short-term loans.

One of the largest such funds is the System Benefit Fund, which helps low-income households with electricity bills. Utility customers throughout the state automatically pay a surcharge of a few dollars on their bills, which is devoted to the fund. But lawmakers decide every year how much of the money raised should go into the program. Earlier this decade, during another difficult budget period, they suspended the assistance for two years while continuing to collect money from ratepayers. That could happen again, says Carole Biedrzycki, executive director of the Texas Ratepayers’ Organization to Save Energy. “They pass a bill to collect money for one purpose and then they use it for another,” she says. “That to me is a type of phantom tax.”

Texas, which has a lottery, has also started to consider slot machines as a way to raise revenue, but legalizing slots would require a constitutional amendment, which means that new casinos in Texas won’t provide money in the immediate crisis. Oliveira says he’s working on a plan to close certain tax loopholes but declines to offer details. “I’ve been in the legislature 13 terms and we’ve never encountered a deficit of this magnitude,” he says. “That sum is just mind-boggling to us.”

http://www.stateline.org/live/details/s ... adlines%29
Bold and Underline mine

Original_Intent · Post by **Original_Intent** » October 18th, 2010, 11:33 am

Maybe "foreclosuregate" will end with those falling into the pit that they intended for others. I know that is wishful thinking, and not likely to happen. It sure seems like "stiffing the banks" would be a politically popular thing to do. Wouldn;t happen in a million years, I am sure if it even looked possible to happen senators would be waking up with the favorite horse's head (or worse) sharing the boudoir....

loquaciousmomma · Post by **loquaciousmomma** » October 18th, 2010, 11:50 am

Jim Sinclair thinks the dollar is terminal:

Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

Here is why Bernanke was on the down low regarding QE last week. The fact is he has no choice. It is that or the West falls into a black hole of insolvency.

QE is therefore going to infinity.

China’s not the villain if the West tries to debase its debt through QE
Last weekend’s "currency war summit" ended in dismal failure. Future historians will wince.

Not least due to America's QE, the yuan has appreciated around 3pc against the dollar since June - when Beijing signalled an end to its "currency peg" regime. However, with crucial mid-term elections looming in early November, US legislators and union bosses are urging President Obama to take tougher action, blaming "Chinese trade distortions" for the loss of "millions of US jobs".

China is hitting back. A government spokesman argued on Friday that it's "totally wrong to blame the yuan for the Sino-US trade imbalance" and urged America not to make China its "scapegoat". Imminent US legislation imposing retaliatory tariffs on China is almost certain to breach World Trade Organisation rules. Unless this stand-off is defused, it can only end badly.

So expect "currency manipulation" to be top of the agenda at the G20 summit. But don't expect much in terms of resolution. As South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak says: "If the world fails to reach agreement on foreign exchange policy and insists on its own interests it will bring about trade protectionism and cause very difficult problems to the global economy". Then again, South Korea has itself intervened heavily in currency markets in a bid to boost its exports.

The QE end-game is impossible to foresee. While the dollar is falling for now, if commodities balloon then correct sharply the dollar itself could spike. Having said that, the long-term trajectory of the US currency must surely be down. The irony is that by implementing yet more QE, America may not do itself much good. It could succeed, though, in imposing chaos on the rest of the world.

Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

This is a Western World problem. Nothing has been done about the cause (OTC derivatives) so the downward spiral will continue.

Confidence this time sunders in all currencies of the Western World due to continuing violence of price. The result you are already seeing is currency induced cost push inflation. It starts moderately such as in energy and copper. As Dean Harry and I have said, all of sudden it explodes.

Hyperinflation is the extreme side of currency induced cost push inflation.

‘We’re at risk of financial collapse’: Ken Clarke’s warning for Western economies
By JAMES CHAPMAN and JAMES SLACK
Last updated at 4:01 PM on 15th October 2010

The West is in ‘grave danger of financial collapse’, Kenneth Clarke warned last night.

We face ‘quite the most dramatic’ spending cuts in ‘living memory’, the former chancellor added as the Coalition prepares to unveil plans to rein in the unprecedented budget deficit left by Labour.

‘I actually am one of those who believes, with a grave danger of financial collapse, we’re not out of the woods in the Western world yet,’ he said in the extraordinary address.

‘There is an extremely serious financial crisis.
’

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 18th, 2010, 12:13 pm

Original_Intent wrote:Maybe "foreclosuregate" will end with those falling into the pit that they intended for others. I know that is wishful thinking, and not likely to happen. It sure seems like "stiffing the banks" would be a politically popular thing to do. Wouldn;t happen in a million years, I am sure if it even looked possible to happen senators would be waking up with the favorite horse's head (or worse) sharing the boudoir....

Well they are certainly walking a tightrope.....in order to push the people in the direction you want them to go you have to create crisis......but with the crisis comes stimulus that must be thought out well ahead of time....and even then...

have you ever herded rabbits or chickens?

and what stops the Lord from tipping the scales with a little nudge here or there?

They will fall into the pit.....but we will probably have to bridge a gap where it appears all is lost! Bridging that gap will most likely require some spiritual reserve and absolute commitment to the Savior, food storage, water, out of debt to the extent possible, and cash for rainy days.

I'm also thinking that gap will be in 2011 and very well could take up most of the year....perhaps rolling into the 1st half of 2012. Prophecy is being fulfilled on a daily basis!

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 18th, 2010, 12:20 pm

Mexican Assassins and Hit Men are Low on the Salary Scale
http://www.mexidata.info/id2840.html

U.S. Troops To Deal With Rioting Americans
http://www.prisonplanet.com/u-s-troops- ... icans.html

U.N. official: U.S. is $1.2 billion in arrears at U.N.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101014/ts_nm/us_un_usa

BPA found in virtually all canned foods
http://www.naturalnews.com/030031_BPA_canned_foods.html

California to Sell 24 Government Buildings for $2.3 Billion
http://www.cnbc.com/id/39626607

US Cities Face Half a Trillion Dollars of Pension Deficits
http://www.cnbc.com/id/39626759

The Health Hazards of Water Fluoridation
http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i ... Itemid=115

First GMO Pig Made for Human Consumption
http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i ... Itemid=115

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 18th, 2010, 12:23 pm

MSM is definitely getting into the play (from Hollywood to New York times) -

Banks Shared Clients’ Profits, but Not Losses
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/busin ... &src=busln

....who's going to protect us from all these vultures????? why the biggest vulture of them all.....the government of course??? the trend continues (in hyper drive) - we sell our freedoms for security.

Add to it a war for cover....

it was what...about 10 years ago we invaded Afghanistan for hiding this man?

NATO official: Bin Laden, deputy hiding in northwest Pakistan
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/1 ... index.html

Meanwhile...

Super Typhoon Megi
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Natura ... &src=nhrss

Super Typhoon Megi hits northern Philippines
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11562238

French strikes force petrol stations to shut
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11567457

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 19th, 2010, 10:43 am

Damage from Super Typhoon Megi still largely unknown
The power is still out and communications are down over the majority of the northern portion of the Philippines' Luzon Island blasted by Typhoon Megi yesterday, so the extent of the destruction wrought by the great storm is still largely unknown. Preliminary news reports indicate that at least 10 people died, and the northern Philippine province of Isabela suffered severe damage. Megi hit Luzon on Monday morning at 3:30 UTC as a Category 5 super typhoon with sustained winds of 165 mph and a central pressure of 914 mb. Baguio near the west coast of northern Luzon received 7.72" of rain from the storm, and many mountainous regions likely received over a foot of rain.

Passage over Luzon Island destroyed Megi's eyewall and inner core region, and the storm compensated by expanding and intensifying the portions of its circulation that were over water. Now that its center is back over water in the South China Sea, Megi has re-developed its inner core and has built a formidable new eyewall. At the same time, Megi has been able to maintain its larger size, and is now a much larger typhoon than when it hit the Philippines. This is similar to what happened to Hurricane Ike in 2008 when it passed over Cuba, and helped give Ike a very destructive storm surge when it came ashore over Texas. Wind shear is a low 5 - 10 knots over Megi, and the waters of the South China sea have a very high total heat content to great depth, so Megi should be able to intensify into a very dangerous Category 4 storm by Thursday. The larger size of Megi means that it will be able to deliver a significant storm surge in excess of ten feet to the coast of China of Friday or Saturday, when the storm is expected to make landfall near Hong Kong. As the storm approaches the coast on Friday, wind shear is expected to rise to the moderate or high range, and the total heat content of the ocean will drop significantly, so some weakening is to be expected. Still, Megi will probably hit China as a major Category 3 typhoon,bringing a significant storm surge, high winds, and widespread torrential rains that will likely make this a multi-billion dollar disaster for China.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1663

Bank of America starts thaw in foreclosure freeze

Bank of America said Monday that it plans to resume seizing more than 100,000 homes in 23 states next week. It said it has a legal right to foreclose despite accusations that documents used in the process were flawed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_bank_of_a ... reclosures

Health Chiefs Confirm Link Between Flu Vaccine and Killer Nerve Disease
http://www.infowars.com/health-chiefs-c ... e-disease/

Shots hit Pentagon; temporary lockdown
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_pentagon_ ... 9ubG9jaw--

Bullets Shot At Pentagon From High Powered Rifle
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/bullet ... ered-rifle

A North Korean anniversary and debut
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/1 ... y_and.html

Sats Spot 3 Miles of NATO Supply Trucks Bottlenecked in Pakistan
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/10 ... -pakistan/

Insider Trading Is Legal For Members Of Congress – And They Refuse To Pass A Law That Would Change That
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... hange-that

....of course how else do people like EBAY dingleberries in Cali recoup the $120 million for a $60k a year job???

Whistleblower Speaks On Fraudclosure
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/whistl ... to+zero%29

Witness: Foreclosure firm owner gave gifts for altering documents
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39725688

Moody's Commercial Property Price Index Drops 3.3% In August, At Lowest Level Since 2002
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/moodys ... to+zero%29

Fed's Dudley: 3 million excess vacant housing units
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29

Home sales are still plunging because people have shifted to the lower levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. That is, with 43 million Americans living in poverty and another 26 million unemployed or underemployed the last thing families are thinking about is purchasing a home. What is usually lost in the data is even of those who are employed, how many have now taken a full-time job that is much lower paying from their previous job? You have many mortgage brokers in California who once made six-figures a year now working in retail or another field that doesn’t come close to their former salary. The unemployment statistics show them as fully employed but the income data tells us another story. Housing can stage no recovery without an employment recovery first. It is amazing that over the past three years now, the massive bulk of the bailouts have been on bailing out banks and focusing with tunnel vision precision on housing. That is why today with so much money funneled into the banking sector, housing is still tanking and the taxpayer is that much poorer. You can thank the Fed, the banks, and you’re current and former government.

Let us set aside this paperwork mess for a few minutes because this story is only beginning. The chart above only goes out to the end of August and the latest data shows that 7,018,000 mortgages are either in foreclosure or non-current, an increase from August to September. It’ll be interesting to see how this paperwork mess will impact the actual number of foreclosures. My belief is that we will see foreclosures drop yet non-current payments remain high. The only reason the foreclosure figures will drop is because of the public and now government pressure on mortgage servicers to use an iota of due diligence. Yet the economy still feels like a recession for most of the American public. Even with FHA insured loans, the reason the housing market is still sputtering along is because of low down payment options. What this signifies is the inability for American households to even support an adequate down payment (i.e., 10 percent or higher).

With over 7,000,000 mortgages in foreclosure or non-current, the housing market has a long way to go before bottoming. Plus, we are now in the historically slow fall and winter selling seasons. Kids are in school. The weather doesn’t make for showing homes in many parts of the country. And the tax gimmicks are for the most part over. The paperwork mess is plastering the media so the public is now realizing in mass how shady banks and their tentacles have gotten if they haven’t realized this already. In other words, the housing crisis is anything but over.

http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/hous ... e+SoCal%29

....of course when its really about a power grab.....of course the crisis isn't over....when the power grab is complete then the crisis will be over and reality will really set in!!!

Wanna loan....see you local government representative at government bank....and they have streamlined payment options. You can either have it withheld out of your wages.....or have it withheld out of your wages. Don't think about quitting your job and if your performance falters....expect a visit and a reminder about your obligations!

They are ensuring that will be the only solution out of the mess they've created.....of course they couldn't have created the mess without the general wickedness of the people....with they've been stimulating for some time through myriad means!

Housing Starts for September came in slightly higher than August at 610,000 units, up from 598,000. The consensus was looking for 580k. All these levels are depression era levels compared to when the economy was actually growing (no, it’s not growing now, the only thing that’s growing is our propensity to yak, print money, and to falsify statistics). What’s even worse than these depression levels of starts is the fact that permits fell from 569k to only 539k, but a decrease in permits heading into the winter months is certainly not unexpected.

LOL, yet another “bottom” call, love it! How one can even say that word based on that report is far beyond me – but the fact that people are still clinging to hope is the very indicator to me that a true bottom is still a ways off. This is because true bottoms are marked by fear, despair, and hopelessness.

This morning several of the banks reported. Like Citigroup, Goldman’s numbers were down across the board yet they “beat” estimates, “earning” *only* $1.9 billion for the quarter (the word 'earnings' when mentioned within the context of any of the primary dealers is presented in quotes to denote that I actually mean ‘stealing’ or otherwise ‘falsifying’).

Speaking of falsifying, Bank of America announced yesterday that it had audited itself in regards to foreclosures giving itself a good bill of health and announcing that it is resuming foreclosures! Then this morning they announce that they lost a “meager” $7.3 Billion in the last quarter, more than wiping out all the falsified earnings of its competitors reported so far! Their proclamation of health is obviously a strategy of ignore and hope that nobody calls them on it. And that’s probably a good gamble for them because they certainly can’t afford to handle reality, so pretending and hoping that no cops show up is a good call for them! Why not? There are no cops. That’s been proven time and again over the past several years. This is like the gangsters who shoot somebody in public in broad daylight – they look at the people who witness their crime and dare them to do something about it, knowing that they won’t and that the cops are on the take. The truth, of course, is that every loan processed through MERS is probably not legal because they bypassed state law. Can you imagine just up and creating your own systems to ignore the state laws? That takes some mega hubris.

And speaking of hubris, BAC's earnings are a great example of a company that reports positive earnings "ex-items." Despite losing $7.3 Billion for the quarter, just look at what is being reported: "Dow component Bank of America Corp. (BAC $12 1) posted 3Q profits ex-items of $0.27 per share, eleven cents above the consensus estimate..."

LOL, a "beat" and POSITIVE EARNINGS despite LOSING $7.3 Billion!!!

The pump monkeys on Wall Street call this "operating earnings" and they will tell you that P/E ratios based upon those earnings are great, never been a better time to buy. It's all FRAUD, there are no accounting cops.

For those not paying attention there was yet another flash crash yesterday. This time it occurred in the SPY and more than half a billion dollars worth of trades was undone by the exchange. This is simply more proof that the ratio of computer to human trades is so far gone that you can’t even call it a marketplace, it’s more of a simulationplace. If this lowers your confidence in the market, your reaction is appropriate, it should.

All the divergences I’ve been pointing out over the past few weeks are only growing larger. Yesterday was a big divergence as the number of new 52 week highs fell dramatically despite higher price. Again, this shows a narrowing breadth, the size of these divergences is historic.

http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2010/1 ... -1019.html

Congratulations of sorts go to Chicago for having the most messed up pension plan of any city in the nation.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29

Production in U.S. Unexpectedly Dropped in September
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29

Companies Petition Obama For Tax Amnesty To Repatriate Cash, As Myth Of "Cash On Sidelines" Crumbles
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/compan ... s-crumbles

....set aside some cash for rainy days because rainy days are coming.....

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 25th, 2010, 2:21 pm

Treasury Draws Negative Yield for First Time During TIPS Sale

The Treasury sold $10 billion of five-year Treasury Inflation Protected Securities at a negative yield for the first time at a U.S. debt auction as investors bet the Federal Reserve will be successful in halting deflation.

Today’s sale was the first of four note offerings this week totaling $109 billion. The U.S. also will auction $35 billion in two-year notes, $35 billion of five-year securities and $29 billion in seven-year debt in sales that begin tomorrow.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-2 ... -sale.html

A Step by Step Guide to Exactly How Much Derivatives Risk Each of the 5 Big Banks Actually Have, and How It Could All Go Boom!
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/step-s ... to+zero%29

CoreLogic: House Prices Declined 1.2% in August

“Price declines are geographically expanding as 78 out of the largest 100 metropolitan areas are experiencing declines, up from 58 just one month ago” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic.

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... 12-in.html

Existing Home Inventory increases 8.9% Year-over-Year
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29

Months of supply decreased to 10.7 months in September from 12.0 months in August. This is extremely high and suggests prices, as measured by the repeat sales indexes like Case-Shiller and CoreLogic, will continue to decline.

Ignore the NAR spin and the median price! These fairly weak numbers are exactly what I expected.

The ongoing high level of supply - and double digit months-of-supply are the key stories. I'll have more ...

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29

Chicago Fed: Economic activity slowed further in September
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29

Gallup: Consumers Plan on Spending Less this Christmas
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29

Weighed down by a struggling economy, government agencies in California shed 37,300 workers last month — more jobs than were lost in the private sector — as cities and counties made their biggest payroll cutbacks since at least 1990.

What's more, analysts see more job cuts ahead as California faces an estimated $10-billion shortfall in the state budget that the next governor must address. Cities and counties, meanwhile, are still struggling with tepid sales and property tax revenue.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29

It’s a Monday... so naturally equity futures have been ramped higher on the back of a dollar that is being crushed. Bonds are soaring higher in a schizoid quantitative fit, the Yen is reaching new completely out of order heights, Oil is reaching for $83 a barrel, and gold is climbing again evidently leaving its mini-correction behind.

And just look at all the manipulation that occurs when you put the G20 together for a weekend! Oh yeah, the IMF “good guys” are going to reorganize to give more power to the emerging markets and they are going to open up its membership to “voting.” LOL, AS IF they are even some type of legitimate organization, THEY ARE NOT, they have as much legal basis as MERS (none), and the U.S.’s participation with the DEBT PUSHING CRIMINALS is not sanctioned by the people of the United States. Giving more power to “emerging markets” is telling us loud and clear that means LESS POWER for the United States! It means the oligarchy who are robbing America blind (same people who own the big banks here, they own the Fed, they own the politicians, they own the exchanges, they own the HFT computers, they own the media, and they own the military industrial complex!!!), are simply packing up their U.S. operations (as we are now debt saturated) and they are moving to take advantage of the next group of as of yet unsaturated saps who have yet to learn better.

And so the majority of the G20 agrees not to manipulate their currencies lower, which leaves the U.S. dollar to tank on its own (with the British Pound), because we all KNOW that in fact this “Fed” and administration are THE biggest manipulators of markets the world has ever known. This is exactly what “QE” is, it manipulates the bond market directly which frees up money to manipulate equities and commodities, all the while intentionally crushing the value of the dollar. Hello $4 gasoline and $12 hamburgers. Every time you eat, you will be paying back the debt with interest, in effect handing over your productive capacity to the oligarchs. It’s a hard chain to follow for most people, but it’s a fact and it’s way past time to wake up to the reality.

And Gary Shilling says that home prices WILL drop another 20% over the next few years sinking the number of homeowners who are underwater from the already horrific 23% to the Noah build an Ark level of 40%!

http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2010/1 ... -1025.html

A LEGAL dispute between the US and India over a herbal toothpaste is leaving a bitter aftertaste between the two countries, with Colgate Palmolive accused of filing a bogus patent.

Colgate, the world’s largest producer of toothpaste, patented a toothcleaning powder in the hope that it would take the multibillion-dollar Indian oral hygiene market by storm.

However, Indian activists claim that the patent is bogus because the ingredients - including clove oil, camphor, black pepper and spearmint - have been used for the same purpose for hundreds, "if not thousands", of years on the subcontinent.

The dispute is likely to become a test case for who owns India’s folk medicines - a repository potentially worth billions.

The American household goods giant was granted the patent in the US in June for what it claimed was a groundbreaking "red herbal dentifrice."

The patent, the Indian activists allege, is the latest act of "biopiracy" - whereby Western corporations plunder techniques, plants or genes used in the emerging world for centuries, for commercial profit.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaki ... 5941921489

The Documentary BP Wants You to Disregard
http://www.propublica.org/article/the-d ... -disregard

Faking News: CIA Assets in the Newsroom
http://www.blacklistednews.com/index.php?news_id=11199

American al-Qaida spokesman urges attacks in US
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9326690

loquaciousmomma · Post by **loquaciousmomma** » October 25th, 2010, 8:08 pm

Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

Becoming toxic waste? It is toxic waste.

Dollar at Risk of Becoming ‘Toxic Waste’: Charts
Published: Monday, 25 Oct 2010 | 8:12 AM ET

The dollar’s slump could get far worse if the dollar index takes out last year’s low, Robin Griffiths, technical strategist at Cazenove Capital, told CNBC Monday.

"If the (dollar index) takes out the low that was made roughly a year ago I really think that will not only encourage more sales, it will cause a little bit of minor panic," Griffiths said. "A year ago it was deemed too cheap, if it goes any lower than that it’s actually become toxic waste."

The dollar [.DXY 76.875 -0.595 (-0.77%) ] resumed its recent downtrend Monday in the wake of a meeting of finance ministers from the Group of 20 nations at the weekend. The meeting failed to yield a definitive agreement on currencies, putting selling pressure on the greenback.

"The dollar is being trashed, we’ve actually had effectively devaluation of about 14 percent in the last two months," Griffiths said.

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 26th, 2010, 10:24 am

The Purpose Behind Engineered Economic Collapse
http://neithercorp.us/npress/?p=674

Kill Zone - A Sniper Looks At Dealey Plaza By Craig Roberts
http://bousnett.com/rune/webBooks/z-Kil ... derETc.pdf

Martial Law, Economic Meltdown, and Executive Orders
http://www.infowars.com/martial-law-eco ... ve-orders/

Pentagon Fired On As America Nears All-Out Civil War
http://www.pakalertpress.com/2010/10/26 ... t+Press%29

White House Adviser: US Must Prepare for Asteroid
http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/artic ... d/19687765

DHS-FBI Small Arms, Lone Shooters and Small-Unit Tactics Warning
http://info.publicintelligence.net/DHS- ... actics.pdf

How Did the Banks Get Away With Pledging Mortgages to Multiple Buyers?
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2 ... dging.html

Kanye West Jokes About Devil Worship, Illuminati Rumors
http://vigilantcitizen.com/?p=5290

Invasion of Pakistan imminent
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=21627

The Covert Origins of the Af-Pak War - The Road to World War III
http://ampedstatus.com/the-covert-origi ... ld-war-iii

Ongoing Iran War Preparations? Arabian Sea: Center Of West's 21st Century War
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=21612

Vatican Synod Proclaims That Israel Cannot Use The Biblical Concept Of A Promised Land Or A Chosen People To Justify New Settlements In Jerusalem
http://themostimportantnews.com/archive ... -jerusalem

CFTC's Chilton Admits Silver Market Subject To "Fraudulent" Influences, Says Manipulation Should Be Prosecuted
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/cftcs- ... to+zero%29

POMO Begins, Stocks Surge
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/pomo-b ... to+zero%29

IBM announces a $10B stock repurchase program, adding on to $2.3B left from its previous authorization - and expects to ask for more in April.
http://seekingalpha.com/news/market_cur ... ource=feed

Introduction:
Bait and Switch

A few weeks after he started working at Ameriquest Mortgage, Mark Glover looked up from his cubicle and saw a coworker do something odd. The guy stood at his desk on the twenty-third floor of downtown Los Angeles's Union Bank Building. He placed two sheets of paper against the window. Then he used the light streaming through the window to trace something from one piece of paper to another. Somebody's signature.

Glover was new to the mortgage business. He was twenty-nine and hadn't held a steady job in years. But he wasn't stupid. He knew about financial sleight of hand—at that time, he had a check-fraud charge hanging over his head in the L.A. courthouse a few blocks away. Watching his coworker, Glover's first thought was: How can I get away with that? As a loan officer at Ameriquest, Glover worked on commission. He knew the only way to earn the six-figure income Ameriquest had promised him was to come up with tricks for pushing deals through the mortgage-financing pipeline that began with Ameriquest and extended through Wall Street's most respected investment houses.

Glover and the other twentysomethings who filled the sales force at the downtown L.A. branch worked the phones hour after hour, calling strangers and trying to talk them into refinancing their homes with high-priced "subprime" mortgages. It was 2003, subprime was on the rise, and Ameriquest was leading the way. The company's owner, Roland Arnall, had in many ways been the founding father of subprime, the business of lending money to home owners with modest incomes or blemished credit histories. He had pioneered this risky segment of the mortgage market amid the wreckage of the savings and loan disaster and helped transform his company's headquarters, Orange County, California, into the capital of the subprime industry. Now, with the housing market booming and Wall Street clamoring to invest in subprime, Ameriquest was growing with startling velocity.

Up and down the line, from loan officers to regional managers and vice presidents, Ameriquest's employees scrambled at the end of each month to push through as many loans as possible, to pad their monthly production numbers, boost their commissions, and meet Roland Arnall's expectations. Arnall was a man "obsessed with loan volume," former aides recalled, a mortgage entrepreneur who believed "volume solved all problems." Whenever an underling suggested a goal for loan production over a particular time span, Arnall's favorite reply was: "We can do twice that." Close to midnight Pacific time on the last business day of each month, the phone would ring at Arnall's home in Los Angeles's exclusive Holmby Hills neighborhood, a $30 million estate that once had been home to Sonny and Cher.On the other end of the telephone line, a vice president in Orange County would report the month's production numbers for his lending empire. Even as the totals grew to $3 billion or $6 billion or $7 billion a month—figures never before imagined in the subprime business—Arnall wasn't satisfied. He wanted more. "He would just try to make you stretch beyond what you thought possible," one former Ameriquest executive recalled. "Whatever you did, no matter how good you did, it wasn't good enough."

Inside Glover's branch, loan officers kept up with the demand to produce by guzzling Red Bull energy drinks, a favorite caffeine pick-me-up for hardworking salesmen throughout the mortgage industry. Government investigators would later joke that they could gauge how dirty a home-loan location was by the number of empty Red Bull cans in the Dumpster out back. Some of the crew in the L.A. branch, Glover said, also relied on cocaine to keep themselves going, snorting lines in washrooms and, on occasion, in their cubicles.

The wayward behavior didn't stop with drugs. Glover learned that his colleague's art work wasn't a matter of saving a borrower the hassle of coming in to supply a missed signature. The guy was forging borrowers' signatures on government-required disclosure forms, the ones that were supposed to help consumers understand how much cash they'd be getting out of the loan and how much they'd be paying in interest and fees. Ameriquest's deals were so overpriced and loaded with nasty surprises that getting customers to sign often required an elaborate web of psychological ploys, outright lies, and falsified papers. "Every closing that we had really was a bait and switch," a loan officer who worked for Ameriquest in Tampa, Florida, recalled. " 'Cause you could never get them to the table if you were honest." At companywide gatherings, Ameriquest's managers and sales reps loosened up with free alcohol and swapped tips for fooling borrowers and cooking up phony paperwork. What if a customer insisted he wanted a fixed-rate loan, but you could make more money by selling him an adjustable-rate one? No problem. Many Ameriquest salespeople learned to position a few fixed-rate loan documents at the top of the stack of paperwork to be signed by the borrower. They buried the real documents—the ones indicating the loan had an adjustable rate that would rocket upward in two or three years—near the bottom of the pile. Then, after the borrower had flipped from signature line to signature line, scribbling his consent across the entire stack, and gone home, it was easy enough to peel the fixed-rate documents off the top and throw them in the trash.

At the downtown L.A. branch, some of Glover's coworkers had a flair for creative documentation. They used scissors, tape, Wite-Out, and a photocopier to fabricate W-2s, the tax forms that indicate how much a wage earner makes each year. It was easy: Paste the name of a low-earning borrower onto a W-2 belonging to a higher-earning borrower and, like magic, a bad loan prospect suddenly looked much better. Workers in the branch equipped the office's break room with all the tools they needed to manufacture and manipulate official documents. They dubbed it the "Art Department."

At first, Glover thought the branch might be a rogue office struggling to keep up with the goals set by Ameriquest's headquarters. He discovered that wasn't the case when he transferred to the company's Santa Monica branch. A few of his new colleagues invited him on a field trip to Staples, where everyone chipped in their own money to buy a state-of-the-art scanner-printer, a trusty piece of equipment that would allow them to do a better job of creating phony paperwork and trapping American home owners in a cycle of crushing debt.

Carolyn Pittman was an easy target. She'd dropped out of high school to go to work, and had never learned to read or write very well. She worked for decades as a nursing assistant. Her husband, Charlie, was a longshoreman.In 1993 she and Charlie borrowed $58,850 to buy a one-story, concrete block house on Irex Street in a working-class neighborhood of Atlantic Beach, a community of thirteen thousand near Jacksonville, Florida. Their mortgage was government-insured by the Federal Housing Administration, so they got a good deal on the loan. They paid about $500 a month on the FHA loan, including the money to cover their home insurance and property taxes.

Even after Charlie died in 1998, Pittman kept up with her house payments. But things were tough for her. Financial matters weren't something she knew much about. Charlie had always handled what little money they had. Her health wasn't good either. She had a heart attack in 2001, and was back and forth to hospitals with congestive heart failure and kidney problems.

Like many older black women who owned their homes but had modest incomes, Pittman was deluged almost every day, by mail and by phone, with sales pitches offering money to fix up her house or pay off her bills. A few months after her heart attack, a salesman from Ameriquest Mortgage's Coral Springs office caught her on the phone and assured her he could ease her worries. He said Ameriquest would help her out by lowering her interest rate and her monthly payments.

She signed the papers in August 2001. Only later did she discover that the loan wasn't what she'd been promised. Her interest rate jumped from a fixed 8.43 percent on the FHA loan to a variable rate that started at nearly 11 percent and could climb much higher. The loan was also packed with more than $7,000 in up-front fees, roughly 10 percent of the loan amount.

Pittman's mortgage payment climbed to $644 a month. Even worse, the new mortgage didn't include an escrow for real-estate taxes and insurance. Most mortgage agreements require home owners to pay a bit extra—often about $100 to $300 a month—which is set aside in an escrow account to cover these expenses. But many subprime lenders obscured the true costs of their loans by excluding the escrow from their deals, which made the monthly payments appear lower. Many borrowers didn't learn they had been tricked until they got a big bill for unpaid taxes or insurance a year down the road.

That was just the start of Pittman's mortgage problems. Her new mortgage was a matter of public record, and by taking out a loan from Ameriquest, she'd signaled to other subprime lenders that she was vulnerable—that she was financially unsophisticated and was struggling to pay an unaffordable loan. In 2003, she heard from one of Ameriquest's competitors, Long Beach Mortgage Company.

Pittman had no idea that Long Beach and Ameriquest shared the same corporate DNA. Roland Arnall's first subprime lender had been Long Beach Savings and Loan, a company he had morphed into Long Beach Mortgage. He had sold off most of Long Beach Mortgage in 1997, but hung on to a portion of the company that he rechristened Ameriquest. Though Long Beach and Ameriquest were no longer connected, both were still staffed with employees who had learned the business under Arnall.

A salesman from Long Beach Mortgage, Pittman said, told her that he could help her solve the problems created by her Ameriquest loan. Once again, she signed the papers. The new loan from Long Beach cost her thousands in up-front fees and boosted her mortgage payments to $672 a month.

Ameriquest reclaimed her as a customer less than a year later. A salesman from Ameriquest's Jacksonville branch got her on the phone in the spring of 2004. He promised, once again, that refinancing would lower her interest rate and her monthly payments. Pittman wasn't sure what to do. She knew she'd been burned before, but she desperately wanted to find a way to pay off the Long Beach loan and regain her financial bearings. She was still pondering whether to take the loan when two Ameriquest representatives appeared at the house on Irex Street. They brought a stack of documents with them. They told her, she later recalled, that it was preliminary paperwork, simply to get the process started. She could make up her mind later. The men said, "sign here," "sign here," "sign here," as they flipped through the stack. Pittman didn't understand these were final loan papers and her signatures were binding her to Ameriquest. "They just said sign some papers and we'll help you," she recalled.

To push the deal through and make it look better to investors on Wall Street, consumer attorneys later alleged, someone at Ameriquest falsified Pittman's income on the mortgage application. At best, she had an income of $1,600 a month—roughly $1,000 from Social Security and, when he could afford to pay, another $600 a month in rent from her son. Ameriquest's paperwork claimed she brought in more than twice that much—$3,700 a month.

The new deal left her with a house payment of $1,069 a month—nearly all of her monthly income and twice what she'd been paying on the FHA loan before Ameriquest and Long Beach hustled her through the series of refinancings. She was shocked when she realized she was required to pay more than $1,000 a month on her mortgage. "That broke my heart," she said.

For Ameriquest, the fact that Pittman couldn't afford the payments was of little consequence. Her loan was quickly pooled, with more than fifteen thousand other Ameriquest loans from around the country, into a $2.4 billion "mortgage-backed securities" deal known as Ameriquest Mortgage Securities, Inc. Mortgage Pass-Through Certificates 2004-R7. The deal had been put together by a trio of the world's largest investment banks: UBS, JPMorgan, and Citigroup. These banks oversaw the accounting wizardry that transformed Pittman's mortgage and thousands of other subprime loans into investments sought after by some of the world's biggest investors. Slices of 2004-R7 got snapped up by giants such as the insurer MassMutual and Legg Mason, a mutual fund manager with clients in more than seventy-five countries. Also among the buyers was the investment bank Morgan Stanley, which purchased some of the securities and placed them in its Limited Duration Investment Fund, mixing them with investments in General Mills, FedEx, JC Penney, Harley-Davidson, and other household names.

It was the new way of Wall Street. The loan on Carolyn Pittman's one-story house in Atlantic Beach was now part of the great global mortgage machine. It helped swell the portfolios of big-time speculators and middle-class investors looking to build a nest egg for retirement. And, in doing so, it helped fuel the mortgage empire that in 2004 produced $1.3 billion in profits for Roland Arnall.

In the first years of the twenty-first century, Ameriquest Mortgage unleashed an army of salespeople on America. They numbered in the thousands. They were young, hungry, and relentless in their drive to sell loans and earn big commissions. One Ameriquest manager summed things up in an e-mail to his sales force: "We are all here to make as much ***** money as possible. Bottom line. Nothing else matters." Home owners like Carolyn Pittman were caught up in Ameriquest's push to become the nation's biggest subprime lender.

The pressure to produce an ever-growing volume of loans came from the top. Executives at Ameriquest's home office in Orange County leaned on the regional and area managers; the regional and area managers leaned on the branch managers. And the branch managers leaned on the salesmen who worked the phones and hunted for borrowers willing to sign on to Ameriquest loans. Men usually ran things, and a frat-house mentality ruled, with plenty of partying and testosterone-fueled swagger. "It was like college, but with lots of money and power," Travis Paules, a former Ameriquest executive, said. Paules liked to hire strippers to reward his sales reps for working well after midnight to get loan deals processed during the end-of-the-month rush. At Ameriquest branches around the nation, loan officers worked ten- and twelve-hour days punctuated by "Power Hours"—do-or-die telemarketing sessions aimed at sniffing out borrowers and separating the real salesmen from the washouts. At the branch where Mark Bomchill worked in suburban Minneapolis, management expected Bomchill and other loan officers to make one hundred to two hundred sales calls a day. One manager, Bomchill said, prowled the aisles between desks like "a little Hitler," hounding salesmen to make more calls and sell more loans and bragging he hired and fired people so fast that one peon would be cleaning out his desk as his replacement came through the door.As with Mark Glover in Los Angeles, experience in the mortgage business wasn't a prerequisite for getting hired. Former employees said the company preferred to hire younger, inexperienced workers because it was easier to train them to do things the Ameriquest way. A former loan officer who worked for Ameriquest in Michigan described the company's business model this way: "People entrusting their entire home and everything they've worked for in their life to people who have just walked in off the street and don't know anything about mortgages and are trying to do anything they can to take advantage of them."

Ameriquest was not alone. Other companies, eager to get a piece of the market for high-profit loans, copied its methods, setting up shop in Orange County and helping to transform the county into the Silicon Valley of subprime lending. With big investors willing to pay top dollar for assets backed by this new breed of mortgages, the push to make more and more loans reached a frenzy among the county's subprime loan shops. "The atmosphere was like this giant cocaine party you see on TV," said Sylvia Vega-Sutfin, who worked as an account executive at BNC Mortgage, a fast-growing operation headquartered in Orange County just down the Costa Mesa Freeway from Ameriquest's headquarters. "It was like this giant rush of urgency." One manager told Vega-Sutfin and her coworkers that there was no turning back; he had no choice but to push for mind-blowing production numbers. "I have to close thirty loans a month," he said, "because that's what my family's lifestyle demands."

Michelle Seymour, one of Vega-Sutfin's colleagues, spotted her first suspect loan days after she began working as a mortgage underwriter at BNC's Sacramento branch in early 2005. The documents in the file indicated the borrower was making a six-figure salary coordinating dances at a Mexican restaurant. All the numbers on the borrower's W-2 tax form ended in zeros—an unlikely happenstance—and the Social Security and tax bite didn't match the borrower's income. When Seymour complained to a manager, she said, he was blasé, telling her, "It takes a lot to have a loan declined."

BNC was no fly-by-night operation. It was owned by one of Wall Street's most storied investment banks, Lehman Brothers. The bank had made a big bet on housing and mortgages, styling itself as a player in commercial real estate and, especially, subprime lending. "In the mortgage business, we used to say, 'All roads lead to Lehman,' " one industry veteran recalled.Lehman had bought a stake in BNC in 2000 and had taken full ownership in 2004, figuring it could earn even more money in the subprime business by cutting out the middleman. Wall Street bankers and investors flocked to the loans produced by BNC, Ameriquest, and other subprime operators; the steep fees and interest rates extracted from borrowers allowed the bankers to charge fat commissions for packaging the securities and provided generous yields for investors who purchased them. Up-front fees on subprime loans totaled thousands of dollars. Interest rates often started out deceptively low—perhaps at 7 or 8 percent—but they almost always adjusted upward, rising to 10 percent, 12 percent, and beyond. When their rates spiked, borrowers' monthly payments increased, too, often climbing by hundreds of dollars. Borrowers who tried to escape overpriced loans by refinancing into another mortgage usually found themselves paying thousands of dollars more in backend fees—"prepayment penalties" that punished them for paying off their loans early. Millions of these loans—tied to modest homes in places like Atlantic Beach, Florida; Saginaw, Michigan; and East San Jose, California—helped generate great fortunes for financiers and investors. They also helped lay America's economy low and sparked a worldwide financial crisis.

The subprime market did not cause the U.S. and global financial meltdowns by itself. Other varieties of home loans and a host of arcane financial innovations—such as collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps—also came into play. Nevertheless, subprime played a central role in the debacle. It served as an early proving ground for financial engineers who sold investors and regulators alike on the idea that it was possible, through accounting alchemy, to turn risky assets into "Triple-A-rated" securities that were nearly as safe as government bonds. In turn, financial wizards making bets with CDOs and credit default swaps used subprime mortgages as the raw material for their speculations. Subprime, as one market watcher said, was "the leading edge of a financial hurricane."

This book tells the story of the rise and fall of subprime by chronicling the rise and fall of two corporate empires: Ameriquest and Lehman Brothers. It is a story about the melding of two financial cultures separated by a continent: Orange County and Wall Street.

Ameriquest and its strongest competitors in subprime had their roots in Orange County, a sunny land of beauty and wealth that has a history as a breeding ground for white-collar crime: boiler rooms, S&L frauds, real-estate swindles. That history made it an ideal setting for launching the subprime industry, which grew in large measure thanks to bait-and-switch salesmanship and garden-variety deception. By the height of the nation's mortgage boom, Orange County was home to four of the nation's six biggest subprime lenders. Together, these four lenders—Ameriquest, Option One, Fremont Investment & Loan, and New Century—accounted for nearly a third of the subprime market. Other subprime shops, too, sprung up throughout the county, many of them started by former employees of Ameriquest and its corporate forebears, Long Beach Savings and Long Beach Mortgage.

Lehman Brothers was, of course, one of the most important institutions on Wall Street, a firm with a rich history dating to before the Civil War. Under its pugnacious CEO, Richard Fuld, Lehman helped bankroll many of the nation's shadiest subprime lenders, including Ameriquest. "Lehman never saw a subprime lender they didn't like," one consumer lawyer who fought the industry's abuses said.Lehman and other Wall Street powers provided the financial backing and sheen of respectability that transformed subprime from a tiny corner of the mortgage market into an economic behemoth capable of triggering the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

A long list of mortgage entrepreneurs and Wall Street bankers cultivated the tactics that fueled subprime's growth and its collapse, and a succession of politicians and regulators looked the other way as abuses flourished and the nation lurched toward disaster: Angelo Mozilo and Countrywide Financial; Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo; Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve; and many more. Still, no Wall Street firm did more than Lehman to create the subprime monster. And no figure or institution did more to bring subprime's abuses to life across the nation than Roland Arnall and Ameriquest.

Among his employees, subprime's founding father was feared and admired. He was a figure of rumor and speculation, a mysterious billionaire with a rags-to-riches backstory, a hardscrabble street vendor who reinvented himself as a big-time real-estate developer, a corporate titan, a friend to many of the nation's most powerful elected leaders. He was a man driven, according to some who knew him, by a desire to conquer and dominate. "Roland could be the biggest bastard in the world and the most charming guy in the world," said one executive who worked for Arnall in subprime's early days. "And it could be minutes apart."He displayed his charm to people who had the power to help him or hurt him. He cultivated friendships with politicians as well as civil rights advocates and antipoverty crusaders who might be hostile to the unconventional loans his companies sold in minority and working-class neighborhoods. Many people who knew him saw him as a visionary, a humanitarian, a friend to the needy. "Roland was one of the most generous people I have ever met," a former business partner said.He also left behind, as another former associate put it, "a trail of bodies"—a succession of employees, friends, relatives, and business partners who said he had betrayed them. In summing up his own split with Arnall, his best friend and longtime business partner said, "I was screwed."Another former colleague, a man who helped Arnall give birth to the modern subprime mortgage industry, said: "Deep down inside he was a good man. But he had an evil side. When he pulled that out, it was bad. He could be extremely cruel." When they parted ways, he said, Arnall hadn't paid him all the money he was owed. But, he noted, Arnall hadn't cheated him as badly as he could have. "He ***** me. But within reason."

Roland Arnall built a company that became a household name, but shunned the limelight for himself. The business partner who said Arnall had "screwed" him recalled that Arnall fancied himself a puppet master who manipulated great wealth and controlled a network of confederates to perform his bidding. Another former business associate, an underling who admired him, explained that Arnall worked to ingratiate himself to fair-lending activists for a simple reason: "You can take that straight out of The Godfather: 'Keep your enemies close.' "

- Excerpted from The Monster by Michael W. Hudson

Which Banks Have Mortgage Risk?: An Analyst Estimates
http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2010/10 ... estimates/

Case-Shiller: Home Price declines widespread in August
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29

New York Fed faces ‘Inherent Conflict’ in possibly forcing banks to buyback mortgages
http://www.bankreorealestate.com/indust ... gages.html

Bombshell – Large investors want Bank of America to repurchase mortgage bonds
http://www.bankreorealestate.com/indust ... bonds.html

BofA, JPM get Texas Subpoenas; Class Action Suit Against BofA; "Pit Bull" vs. BofA in Mortgage BuyBack Battle
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29

The Metastasis of Residential Mortgage Backed Securities: Interview with Joe Mason
http://us1.irabankratings.com/pub/IRAMain.asp

The Incentive to Foreclose Rather than Modify Homeowners’ Mortgages
http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i ... &Itemid=35

OK, so by now you have heard that existing home sales were up 10% in August. At least that’s what the NAR and the mainstream media reported. Yes, there were some qualifications added to those media reports. Here are a few facts, or as Paul Harvey would say, “The rest of the story”.

Sales were down 8.5% month to month. The seasonal hocus pocus is particularly misleading this month because sales were already extremely depressed for this time of year. The fact is that the market is getting worse. Volume was 379k in September, down from 414k in August. This compares with 498k in August 2009, and 468k in September 2009. Sales are down 19% y/y. This is the worst September in at least the last 10 years.

Median prices were down a whopping 4% m/m and are now down 6.5% since June. This reflects the removal of the artificial price distortion caused by the homebuyers’ tax credit. This is a return to a real market based price, rather than one artificially and falsely inflated. Or at least it’s market based to the extent that it is also skewed by the Fed’s mortgage rate subsidy via its purchases of Treasuries.

In addition to the other seasonal hocus pocus, the NAR also adjusted August inventory up from 3,982,000 to 4,117,000. That enabled them to report an inventory decline to 4,040,000. Inventory is up 330k units, or 8.9% y/y. The inventory to sales ratio stands at 10.66 vs. 7.93 last September.

Any way you look at the real numbers, they are catastrophic. The idea that there’s any improvement at all here is just completely false.

So given that things are already catastrophic, what happens when the Fed finally stops subsidizing mortgage rates? Of course the operative word is “when.” Who knows? My guess is when the commodity futures vigilantes force the Fed’s hand via raging commodity price appreciation (inflation) that gobsmacks consumers into ratcheting down discretionary spending again. I imagine that will come within 6 months.

http://wallstreetexaminer.com/2010/10/2 ... es-tactic/

.....my bet is we'll see a roll up of the big 4 into a government bank within the next 6 months.

Debt U – 4,800 colleges and universities in the U.S. and many are putting students into massive amounts of debt. The higher education bubble is getting to a point of bursting.
http://www.mybudget360.com/debt-u-4800- ... s-of-debt/

Culture of Corruption: Harry Reid Staffer Caught in Sham Marriage to Keep Terror Suspect in the U.S.
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/culture-of ... in-the-us/

Planning for a Sustainable Future: A Federal Sustainable Development Strategy for Canada
http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/collections/ ... 10-eng.pdf

Mind Virus Injected into New Mothers by Pharma and Department of Defense
http://vactruth.com/2010/10/25/mind-vir ... f-defense/

CHINA: BYD Fined, Factories Confiscated By China in Land Dispute Case
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15634

Burst water main chaos is first test for new Moscow mayor
http://rt.com/Top_News/2010-10-26/burst ... chaos.html

Entry level 1911s
http://gunnuts.net/2010/10/26/entry-level-1911s/

Valkyrie Armament Belt-Fed AR (AR-15) 5.56mm NATO/.223 Rem. Automatic Rifle/Carbine/SBR: Stoner 63 Modular Weapons System Revisited. Turn your select-fire/full-auto AR into a true light machine gun (LMG)/squad automatic weapon (SAW).
http://www.defensereview.com/valkyrie-a ... -light-ma/

Silver Shadow Gilboa APR (Assault Pistol Rifle) Select-Fire Tactical AR (AR-15) PDW/SBR/Pistol for Military Special Operations (SPECOPS) Applications
http://www.defensereview.com/silver-sha ... lications/

300 AAC Blackout (.300BLK) 7.62×35mm Heavy Supersonic/Subsonic Rifle Cartridge for Military Special Operations Applications: Will it Fly?
http://www.defensereview.com/300-aac-bl ... ll-it-fly/

FN HAMR
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2010 ... rm+Blog%29

Daniel Defense Vickers Tactical Carbine
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2010 ... rm+Blog%29

Tornadoes, violent thunderstorms, and torrential rains are sweeping through the nation's midsection today, thanks to an explosively deepening low pressure system over Minnesota. The spectacular storm is expected to bottom out at a central pressure of 960 mb later today, the type of central pressure one commonly encounters in Category 2 hurricanes. A powerful cold front trails southwards from the storm, and this cold front has spawned an impressive squall line studded with violent thunderstorms. As many as eleven simultaneous tornado warnings have been issued late this morning for these thunderstorms, from southern Michigan to northern Mississipi. So far, the tornadoes have been embedded within the squall line, and these type of tornadoes are typically weaker EF-0 to EF-1 twisters. However, as the day progresses and the sun's heating adds energy to the atmosphere, strong EF-2 or EF-3 tornadoes are likely, if dicsrete supercell thunderstorms separate from the squall line and begin to evolve. So far, six reports of tornadoes touching down have been received, but only minor damage has been reported. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has placed much of southern Michigan, eastern Indiana, and western Ohio in their "High Risk" area for severe weather. "High Risk" days occur less than five times per year, on average, and are unusual in the fall. Fall storms this intense only occur perhaps once every 5 - 10 years. You can follow today's severe weather outbreak using our Severe Weather Page and Tornado page.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1673

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 27th, 2010, 10:16 am

got this from military buddy....fwiw
http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/8911239/20 ... ominos.wmv

2 weeks of flooding in Thailand kills 57 people

Last week, Abhisit said the flooding was the country's worst in 40 or 50 years due to heavy rains that dumped larger-than-normal amounts of water into dams and reservoirs and aggressive housing and business development that has affected natural drainage channels.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101027/ap_ ... d_flooding

The Mess Mortgage Bankers Made is Criminal, Not Accidental
http://radiofreewallstreet.fm/?p=996

Tornadoes, violent thunderstorms, and torrential rains swept through a large portion of the nation's midsection yesterday, thanks to the strongest storm ever recorded in the Midwest. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center logged 24 tornado reports and 282 reports of damaging high winds from yesterday's spectacular storm, and the storm continues to produce a wide variety of wild weather, with tornado watches posted for Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, a blizzard warning for North Dakota, high wind warnings for most of the upper Midwest, and near-hurricane force winds on Lake Superior.

The mega-storm reached peak intensity late yesterday afternoon over Minnesota, resulting in the lowest barometric pressure readings ever recorded in the continental United States, except for from hurricanes and nor'easters affecting the Atlantic seaboard. So far, it appears the lowest reading (not yet official) was a pressure of 28.20" (954.9 mb) reduced to sea level reported from Bigfork, Minnesota at 5:13pm CDT. Other extreme low pressures from Minnesota during yesterday's storm included 28.22" (956 mb) at Orr at 5:34pm CDT, 28.23" at International Falls (3:45pm), and 28.23" at Waskuh at 5:52pm. The 28.23" (956mb) reading from International Falls yesterday obliterated their previous record of 28.70" set on Nov. 11, 1949 by nearly one-half inch of mercury--a truly amazing anomaly. Duluth's 28.36" (961 mb) reading smashed their old record of 28.48" (964 mb) set on Nov. 11, 1998. Wisconsin also recorded its lowest barometric pressure in history yesterday, with a 28.36" (961 mb) reading at Superior. The old record was 28.45" (963.4 mb) at Green Bay on April 3, 1982. The previous state record for Minnesota was 28.43" (963 mb) at Albert Lea and Austin on Nov. 10, 1998.

Yesterday's 28.20" (955 mb) low pressure reading in Minnesota breaks not only the 28.28" (958 mb) previous "USA-interior-of-the-continent-record" from Cleveland, Ohio during the Great Ohio Storm of Jan. 26, 1978 (a lower reading in Canada during this event bottomed out at an amazing 28.05"/950 mb), but also the lowest pressure ever measured anywhere in the continental United States aside from the Atlantic Coast. The modern Pacific Coast record is 28.40" (962mb) at Quillayute, Washington on Dec. 1, 1987. An older reading, taken on a ship offshore from the mouth of the Umpqua River in Oregon during the famous "Storm King" event on January 9, 1880, is tied with yesterday's 28.20" (955 mb.)

The lowest non-hurricane barometric pressure reading in the lower 48 states is 28.10" (952 mb) measured at Bridgehampton, New York (Long Island) during an amazing nor'easter on March 1, 1914 (see Kocin and Uccellini, "Northeast Snowstorms; Vol. 2., p. 324, American Meteorological Society, 2004.) The lowest non-hurricane barometric pressure reading from anywhere in the United States was a 27.35" (927 mb) reading at Dutch Harbor, Alaska on Oct. 25, 1977. The lowest hurricane pressure reading was the 26.34" (892 mb) recorded in 1935 during the Great Labor Day Hurricane.

Yesterday's superstorm is reminiscent of the amazing low pressures reached earlier this year (Jan. 19-22) in the West, where virtually every site in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, southern Oregon, and southern Idaho--about 10 - 15% of the U.S. land area--broke their lowest on record pressure readings. However, the lowest readings from that event fell well short of yesterday's mega-storm with 28.85" (977 mb) being about the lowest recorded at any onshore site.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1674

"It seems that the Fed has taken Charles Ponzi one step further. Instead of simply paying for maturing debt with receipts from financial sector creditors – banks, insurance companies, surplus reserve nations and investment managers, to name the most significant – the Fed has joined the party itself. Rather than orchestrating the game from on high, it has jumped into the pond with the other swimmers. One and one-half trillion in checks were written in 2009, and trillions more lie ahead. The Fed, in effect, is telling the markets not to worry about our fiscal deficits, it will be the buyer of first and perhaps last resort. There is no need – as with Charles Ponzi – to find an increasing amount of future gullibles, they will just write the check themselves. I ask you: Has there ever been a Ponzi scheme so brazen? There has not. This one is so unique that it requires a new name. I call it a Sammy scheme, in honor of Uncle Sam and the politicians (as well as its citizens) who have brought us to this critical moment in time. It is not a Bernanke scheme, because this is his only alternative and he shares no responsibility for its origin. It is a Sammy scheme – you and I, and the politicians that we elect every two years – deserve all the blame."....The Fed wants to buy, so come on, Ben Bernanke, show us your best and perhaps last moves on Wednesday next. You are doing what you have to do, and it may or may not work. But either way it will likely signify the end of a great 30-year bull market in bonds and the necessity for bond managers and, yes, equity managers to adjust to a new environment. - Bill Gross

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/bill-g ... ket-ending

And while American non-financial companies currently do indeed have a record $943 billion of cash (of which however $233 billion is in short-term investments), they also have a record amount of debt to go with the cash: 3,394 billion at mid 2010. In addition, as we have long cautioned, nearly a quarter of this cash is held abroad and can not be repatriated. Furthermore, putting the $1 trillion in perspective, it is slightly higher than the total combined annual corporate capital spending and dividend payments by non-financial companies. As such, the cash buffer is certainly not as big as is touted by assorted permabulls. In fact, as even Moody's, which has just released the most comprehensive analysis on US corporate cash discloses, "companies are unlikely to spend their cash on expansion and hiring until there is greater certainty about the direction of the U.S. economy."

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/object ... cash-hoard

Consumer lawyers have been traveling to a remote 160-acre farm in the mountains of western North Carolina since 2006 to network, drink Scotch and prepare for legal combat in foreclosure and bankruptcy cases.

They arrive in groups of a dozen or so for a four-day boot camp where they learn how to protect their clients’ assets by exploiting the mistakes of creditors. Attendees these days are especially keen on strategies to fend off mortgage lenders and servicers seeking to seize their clients’ homes.

Their instructor is O. Max Gardner III, a 65-year-old bankruptcy litigator and grandson of a North Carolina governor, who was using flaws in mortgage servicing to stave off lenders years before cases involving shoddy paperwork spurred this month’s investigation of the industry by the attorneys general of all 50 states. He charges $7,775 for the program, which covers 3,000 pages of materials, lodging, food and unlimited wine, beer and single-malt Scotch.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-2 ... nders.html

Employers in the U.S. are starting to warn their workers to prepare for slimmer paychecks if Congress fails to vote on an extension of Bush-era tax cuts.

“I’ve been doing payroll for probably close to 30 years now, and never have we seen something like this where it gets that down to the wire,” said Dennis Danilewicz, who manages payroll services for about 14,000 employees at New York University’s Langone Medical Center. “That’s what’s got a lot of people nervous. All we can do is start preparing communications with a couple of different scenarios.”

Lawmakers won’t start debating whether to extend the cuts, which expire Dec. 31, until after the Nov. 2 elections.

Because it takes weeks to prepare withholding schedules, the Internal Revenue Service will probably have to assume the cuts will expire and direct employers to increase payroll deductions starting Jan. 1, experts say.

If Congress fails to act, income tax rates will revert to higher levels dating from June 2001.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-2 ... e-pay.html

Chris Martenson Interviews Mike Shedlock, Discusses Deflation, The Fed, Gold And Other Subjects
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/chris- ... r-subjects

And what do airliners depend upon? Oil of course! And thus I thought this little tidbit this morning was very interesting for those who understand the concept of peak oil:

Alaska's untapped oil reserves estimate lowered 90 percent

The U.S. Geological Survey says a revised estimate for the amount of conventional, undiscovered oil in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska is a fraction of a previous estimate.

The group estimates about 896 million barrels of such oil are in the reserve, about 90 percent less than a 2002 estimate of 10.6 billion barrels.

The new estimate is mainly due to the incorporation of new data from recent exploration drilling revealing gas occurrence rather than oil in much of the area, the geological survey said.

My oh my – that’s a game changer if it’s true and not just disinformation. Hard to know in today’s world as every release must not be taken at face value. What agenda and motivation does the Geological Survey have in generating this release, and what political influence are they under? That I don’t know, but this would throw a large wrinkle at those who think Alaska is going to make the U.S. anywhere close to energy independent anytime soon.

http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2010/1 ... -1027.html

Indonesia tsunami: Death toll soars to 272
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11632982

Indonesia volcano eruption death toll hits 25
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11633213

EXCLUSIVE: Uncovered 9/11 Footage Shows FBI Director Asking Firefighters About “Secondary Hits” On WTC
http://www.infowars.com/exclusive-uncov ... 9D-on-wtc/

Urban terror threats prompt new UK police training
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101026/ap_ ... ain_mumbai

American Al Qaeda May Now Pose Most Clear Threat to Homeland Security - U.S. Authorities Worry Over Americans Rising to Leadership Roles in Al Qaeda
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Blotter/ ... d=11972691

Whistleblower: Coast Guard Implementing Martial Law
http://www.infowars.com/whistleblower-c ... rtial-law/

Large Number of 9/11 Reference Videos Going Up on YouTube - I think that these are from the NIST dump the happened recently. A YouTube user must have downloaded the torrent and is adding hundreds of the clips
http://www.youtube.com/user/911Crasting

Nevada voting machines automatically checking Harry Reid's name; voting machine technicians are SEIU members
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opini ... 15608.html

Federal court overturns part of Arizona voting ID law
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/27/ari ... l?iref=NS1

U.S. Treasury Hid $40 Billion in AIG Bailout Losses
http://publicintelligence.net/u-s-treas ... ut-losses/

Ford Motor Company Is Making Record Profits – By Shipping Our Jobs Overseas
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... s-overseas

Chrysler poised to receive U.S. technology loans
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69P4A520101026

Commodity Futures Trading Commission: Silver Market is Manipulated
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2 ... lated.html

The FIX: Let No Crisis Go To Waste
http://dailycensored.com/2010/10/26/the ... ensored%29

Toronto Embraces Fiscal Prudence; Guillotine of Spending Cuts Coming?
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29

Of course assuming that they (the oligarchs) don’t recognize what’s occurring is simply naïve. The people of this country must realize that they are being DELIBERATELY robbed of their futures, and when they do then hopefully they can work to unseat the illegitimate oligarchic organizations of the globe, namely the “Fed,” IMF, BIS, CFR, and even the subordinate organizations like the United Nations whose existence is a good idea in concept, but in practice they have been bought off and controlled by the people inside the global money changing cartel.

That’s a critically important to paragraph to understand. It is these people who are butchering the rule of law, and it is up to the people to reinstate the rule of law. Step one in doing so is to prosecute their crimes and to throw those responsible in prison. THEN we can get on with the business of reestablishing a money system that works, and we can work to fairly and equitably resolve the debt saturation problem those debt pushing fraudsters created.

Other than that I have no strong opinions!

http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2010/1 ... -1027.html

What They Don’t Tell You About Storable Foods
http://standeyo.com/NEWS/10_Food_Water/ ... .food.html

A 7.7-Magnitude Earthquake Off Sumatra Triggers A Tsunami And A Volcano In Indonesia Erupts Three Times Forcing Thousands To Flee
http://themostimportantnews.com/archive ... ds-to-flee

James Cameron Agrees to Make Two Sequels to `Avatar' After Film's Success
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-2 ... ccess.html

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 27th, 2010, 2:02 pm

Two weeks ago we first touched upon a key tangential topic of the whole mortgage mess, namely the implication of what potential MERS fraud means for Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities. Well, the topic which has so far avoided broad media attention to the benefit of all CMBS holders may be about to go mainstream. As part of our initial inquiry, we asked: "If residential mortgage foreclosures are being halted and if the very fabric of the MBS securitization architecture is put into question, when will someone ask whether MERS® Commercial allowed such pervasive title fraud as is now apparently ubiquitous in the residential space, to take the CMBS space by storm, and how many billions in dollars will Banc of America Securities, Bear Stearns (d/b/a JP Morgan), GE Capital Real Estate, GMAC Commercial, John Hancock and Wells Fargo be forced to buy back loans that were fraudulently certified." Our question is now being reiterated by Barclays Capital. Next up Bloomberg, Ratigan, and everyone else.

"we conducted a quick search through the PSAs and pro-sups of deals securitized between 2004 and 2008 and estimated that about $280bn worth of conduit deals have some MERS language in them." A second approach which involves tracking not shelf names but the originator's original exposure to MERS yields a lower downside estimate of about $82 billion. The bottom line is that nobody really knows, and because the MERS Commercial database is not open for public use, and only "broad-based estimates within the CMBS universe could be drawn" it is safe to say that nobody really knows how many deals in the critical 2004-2008 vintages were exposed to the MERS "virus." The final answer: a lot.

And while we will present the BarCap note below as a primer for all other journalists who are way overdue in finally following on this issue which will impact nearly $3 trillion in securitized loans, a far more interesting disclosure is the fact that as Barclays discloses, MERS involvement was in fact presented as a boilerplate risk factor to CMBS transactions. As a result, any additional adverse findings on MERS immediately open up the banks to massive rep and warranty lawsuits, and make the MERS issue orders of magnitude more problematic for the banks to deal with than simple putback issues at the servicer level.

To wit:

Some deal documents do contain a standard risk disclaimer listed under: "The Recording of the Mortgages in the Name of MERS May Affect the Yield on Your Certificates," specifically:

"The recording of mortgages in the name of MERS is a new practice in the commercial mortgage lending industry. Public recording officers and others may have limited, if any, experience with lenders seeking to foreclose mortgages, assignments of which are registered with MERS. Accordingly, delays and additional costs in commencing, prosecuting and completing foreclosure proceedings and conducting foreclosure sales of the mortgaged properties could result. Those delays and the additional costs could in turn delay the distribution of liquidation proceeds to certificate-holders and increase the amount of losses on the loans."

The banks were perfectly aware that MERS could be a major stumbling block in deal underwriting and put it up front and center as a key risk factor. And since the investor did sign off on this risk, the question really becomes who is more liable: the underwriter or the investor? Is this the smoking gun loophole that banks will huddle around and pull the Goldman excuse that it was really the "sophisticated investor's" duty to perform their own due diligence, with the risk factor out there front and center?

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/mers-f ... n-barclays
Bold and Underline mine

Planned crisis!

"So today the MIs are still operating, though they are not providing insurance because they can't. Observers in the operational trenches tell The IRA that virtually no MI claims are being paid - even if the claim is legitimate. The MIs are very undercapitalized and still bleeding heavily. But they get continued business because the GSEs demand MI on high LTV loans. Lenders are forced to use the MIs and consumers are made to pay the premium. Thus the auditors of the GSE continue to respect the cover from the MIs, even though the entire industry is arguably insolvent." The question is how many CDS have Goldman et al purchased in bulk in anticipation of the imminent wholesale MI Event of Default, which will force Geithner to once again use the Mutual Assured Destruction wildcard and force taxpayers to bail out those holding MI insurance, especially if the originators and servicers end up being one and the same...

The relationship between the GSEs and the MIs is identical to the "side letter" insurance transactions between AIG and Gen Re, and come to think of it, the AIG credit default swaps trades with Goldman Sachs (GS) and various other Wall Street dealers. In each case the substance of the transaction is to falsify the financial statements of the participants. And in each case, the acts are arguably criminal fraud. And in the case of the zombie banks, the GSEs and the MIs, the fraud is being actively concealed by Congress, the White House and agencies of the U.S. government led by the Federal Reserve Board. Is this not tyranny?

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/chris- ... ge-insurer

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 28th, 2010, 5:01 am

Reappearance of Huge Plumes of Oil is Making It Hard to Pretend that the Problem Has Disappeared
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/heres- ... ast-4-days

....never did come to a conclusion on whether the now sealed well was A or B...

US sets up security zone around BP oil spill site

The security zone, 68 kilometers (42 miles) off Louisiana state, extends from the sea floor to the sea surface and will last until October 8, 2011, "unless renewed for good cause."

The DoJ said the safety perimeter was decided "to protect the search area and any evidence located in the area against intentional or unintentional loss."

"The order will be enforced by the United States using the full range of security assets available, including vessels, aircraft or other appropriate means and equipment," it added.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... 0bb3e1.901

BP's Environmental Disaster: Fishermen Report Louisiana Bays Filled With Oil
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=21653

Why Tracking BP Worker Deaths Is Tricky
http://www.propublica.org/article/why-t ... -is-tricky

22 Statistics That Prove The Elite Are Becoming Fabulously Wealthy While The Middle Class Is Being Ripped To Shreds
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... -to-shreds

G-20 Currency Agreement to Agree Collapses Already
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29

Home Sales: Distressing Gap Sept 2010
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29

"The Fraud Perpetrated Upon Investors and Insurers Due to Multiple Pledges of Collateral Could Be Massive"
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2 ... s-and.html

XLF Sets World Record In Quote Stuffing With 23.3 Quotes Per Millisecond
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/xlf-se ... illisecond

JPM, HSBC Sued For Silver Market Manipulation, Reaping Billions In Illegal Profits
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/jpm-hs ... al-profits

Investors Holding Voting Rights In More than 2,600 MBS Deals Prepare To Fight Back Against Servicers
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/invest ... -servicers

25th Sequential Stock Fund Outflow, $81 Billion Year To Date
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/25th-s ... -year-date

A Paralyzed Fed Defers Decision On Monetary Policy To Primary Dealers In An Act That Can Only Be Classified As Treason
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/paraly ... ry-dealers

Trigger Points, Black Swans, And Other Unpleasant Realities
http://neithercorp.us/npress/?p=885

Baby Boomers: Get Out of the Stock Market Now, the Rug is Being Pulled Out By Insiders
http://www.activistpost.com/2010/10/bab ... arket.html

(U//FOUO//LIMDIS) FEMA National Capital Region Catastrophic Incident CONPLAN Draft
http://info.publicintelligence.net/NCR- ... ONPLAN.pdf

Jacksonville mom who shook baby for interrupting computer game pleads to murder

A Jacksonville mother charged with shaking her baby to death has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Alexandra V. Tobias, 22, was arrested after the January death of 3-month-old Dylan Lee Edmondson. She told investigators she became angry because the baby was crying while she was playing a computer game called Farmville on the Facebook social-networking website.

Tobias told investigators that she shook the baby, smoked a cigarette to compose herself and then shook him again. She said the baby may have hit his head during the shaking.

http://jacksonville.com/david-hunt/2010 ... pleads-2nd

New Footage Implodes 9/11 Cover-up
http://www.infowars.com/new-footage-imp ... -cover-up/

PRESS CENSORSHIP ALERT: AUSTRALIA AND 9/11 (VIDEO)
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/10/27 ... 911-video/

Cholera hits Pakistan 3 months after floods start
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db9 ... enDocument

Towards Martial Law in America: Authority to Deploy Troops Domestically during ‘National Emergencies’
http://theintelhub.com/2010/10/28/towar ... ergencies/

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 28th, 2010, 10:55 am

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana's budget crunch has become so severe that some state workers have suggested leaving severely disabled people at homeless shelters if they can't be cared for at home, parents and advocates said.

They said workers at Indiana's Bureau of Developmental Disabilities Services have told parents that's one option they have when families can no longer care for children at home and haven't received Medicaid waivers that pay for services that support disabled people living independently.

Marcus Barlow, a spokesman for the Family and Social Services Administration, the umbrella agency that includes the bureau, said suggesting homeless shelters is not the agency's policy and workers who did so would be disciplined.

However, Becky Holladay of Battle Ground, Ind., said that's exactly what happened to her when she called to ask about the waiver she's seeking for her 22-year-old son, Cameron Dunn, who has epilepsy, autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

There have been no confirmed cases of families dumping severely disabled people at homeless shelters because Indiana wouldn't provide the care needed.

But some families have been on waiting lists for waivers for 10 years. The lists contained more than 20,000 names last month, and one advocacy group predicted they will only grow longer because Gov. Mitch Daniels ordered budget cuts that have eliminated 2,000 waiver slots since July.

Budget cuts also have resulted in the state moving foster children with disabilities to a lower cost program that doesn't provide services for special needs and eliminating a grocery benefit for hundreds of developmentally disabled adults.

Kim Dodson, associate executive director of The Arc of Indiana, said her group has received reports of state workers in several of BDDS's eight regional offices telling families to take disabled adults to homeless shelters. She speculated that the suggestion resulted from frustration among BDDS staff as families become more outspoken about the effects of state cuts.

"It is something we are hearing from all over the state, that families are being told this is an alternative for them," Dodson said. "A homeless shelter would never be able to serve these people."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_disabled_ ... s_shelters

Death toll in Indonesian tsunami, volcano tops 340
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101028/ap_ ... earthquake

15 Killed in Mexican Car Wash Massacre
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/ ... ?tag=strip

'Many, many of the bodies were swept to sea’ - 681 missing, dead after tsunami in Indonesia; also volcano erupts again
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39886510/ns ... iapacific/

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 29th, 2010, 1:54 pm

Consumer deleveraging continues in the housing market, and not all of that is via foreclosure or default. Freddie Mac reports 33% Of Homeowners Who Refinanced In 3Q Cut Principal

One-third of homeowners who refinanced their mortgage terms in the third quarter lowered their principal balance through so-called cash-in at closing, according to Freddie Mac (FMCC).

It was the second-highest total since Freddie began keeping records of refinance patterns in 1985. The revised cash-in rate in the second quarter was 23%.

Rates on 30-year fixed mortgages dropped during the third quarter to levels not seen since the early 1950s, according to Frank Nothaft, Freddie's chief economist.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29

...a bit of deflation there...

Note the overall slope of that chart! The bottom line for me is that we are experiencing monetary growth, while at the same time the real economy is continuing to contract. Wages are not anywhere near keeping pace with the monetary growth, this is creating the huge gaps between the top people who benefit from inflation and the bottom wage earners who suffer from it – the vast majority of people.

There you will find that in the top income bracket measured, there are 74 people who earned more than $50 million last year. Their average income jumped last year from $91.8 million to an unbelievable $518.8 million! How are they benefiting from a system of never ending inflation? That’s a little bit different than the slope of the chart above, and this is exactly the stuff seen at the end of empires, it is the root of inequity, and it is the root of revolution. When only they can afford to eat, then history says they will be overthrown – appropriately so.

And thus the economic and political system that can stand the test of time has yet to exist on this planet. If those 74 people were smart, they’d be buying beer, corn syrup, and cable T.V. for the masses. Oh wait, 40 million plus on food stamps, that’s right, they are.

...

You’ll also note in this report that almost every category tracked, while reported positive, is DECELERATING substantially from the prior report. Take exports for an example: “Real exports of goods and services increased 5.0 percent in the third quarter, compared with an increase of 9.1 percent in the second. Real imports of goods and services increased 17.4 percent, compared with an increase of 33.5 percent.” The numbers seem large, but are much smaller than the previous quarter. Again, they claim these numbers are “real,” that is adjusted for inflation, but again I have to raise the B.S. flag to full mast on those numbers. Shipping data and tax receipts do not substantiate their trade data that again are measured in dollars and corrected by flawed inflation data.

All the income figures show the same trend, that income is supposedly up by their measurements, but not at nearly the same rate as the prior quarter. For example: “Current-dollar personal income increased $65.7 billion (2.1 percent) in the third quarter, compared with an increase of $123.5 billion (4.1 percent) in the second.”

Remember, these are the first cut and we know that all these numbers will be revised downwards. The “Price Index” portion of the report supposedly rose 2.3%, this is an increase from 1.9%, and did come in above expectations of 2.0%.

Frankly, with the dollar index falling 8.4% during the quarter against a competitively devalued basket of currencies, you can see how under-reported the inflation effects are. Should they have used an 8%+ deflator, then real GDP would have been close to negative 6%! And that’s probably a lot closer to the truth. But reality is another matter entirely, as one would have to subtract out financial engineering which adds massively to “production,” yet in reality produces nothing but heartache.

http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2010/1 ... -1029.html

Drug laws trump constitutional rights
http://www.uab.edu/kscope/kaleidoscope- ... -2692.html

Amesbury: Town halts use in water supply, seeks solutions

AMESBURY — Citing problems with the quality of sodium fluoride flooding the American market, Department of Public Works director Rob Desmarais said Amesbury has no current plans to resume its practice of adding fluoride to the town's water supply.

Though the health benefits to children in adding it to the water supply are well documented, the town discontinued fluoridating its water in April.

Desmarais said he is concerned that the material Amesbury had been getting in recent years did not dissolve as raw sodium fluoride should, leaving questions about the possibility it's being mixed with something else.

"This is the second time we've had to stop because we can't get a reliable supply," said Desmarais last week. "We've been buying the stuff from our supplier, which is the low bidder, and they've been providing us with product that comes from China, which doesn't meet our standards."

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.

In 2007, it was discovered by U.S. health officials that numerous brands of toothpaste purchased from China and being sold in the United states contained a dangerous poison used in antifreeze, prompting a nationwide recall of the Chinese-made products. The toxic material diethylene was found in concentrations as high as 3 to 4 percent under a number of different brand names.

Months later, the FDA banned the sale of baby formula manufactured in China after it was discovered to be tainted with a dangerous toxic chemical, melamine.

Though Desmarais said he's not suggesting the material in the sodium fluoride is similarly dangerous, those two incidents weigh heavily on his mind when he ponders what the material could be.

"We don't know what the stuff is," said Desmarais of the residual material that ends up in the water treatment plant's saturator. "The saturator gets plugged very frequently, and then it will stop adding it."

This creates a problem in assessing how much fluoride is being dispensed at any given time, Desmarais said. While fluoride has proved beneficial to children's dental health, some studies show too much can have detrimental effects.

http://www2.fluoridealert.org/Alert/Uni ... -solutions
Bold and Underline mine

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 29th, 2010, 8:20 pm

Tropical Storm Tomas has exploded into existence in spectacular fashion, becoming the nineteenth named storm of this amazingly active 2010 Atlantic hurricane season. I'm reporting to you live from the National Hurricane Center tonight, where forecasters are working hard to stay abreast of Tomas' intensification. Three hurricane specialists are on duty tonight--Dave Roberts, who is handling Tropical Storm Shary, and Robbie Berg and Dan Brown, who are focusing on Tomas. The Hurricane Hunters have just left Tomas, as of 8pm EDT, and they found a significant increase in winds. Winds at their 1500 foot flight level were 70 mph, and surface winds as measured by the SFMR instrument were near 60 mph. This supports an increase in Tomas' winds to 60 mph in tonight's 8pm EDT public advisory. Since this is such a large increase in intensity from what was forecast--Tomas was not supposed to have 60 mph winds for another 24 hours--this necessitates issuance of a special advisory package. A full set of forecast maps, a marine advisory, wind probability forecast, and a discussion just went out to the world. While all this was occurring, several phone calls to Barbados, St. Lucia, and Martinique were made, alerting the islands to the fact that a Hurricane Warning may be required with the 11pm advisory tonight. NHC has both French speaking and Spanish speaking meteorologists on staff that can coordinate with the islands that don't have English as their main language. I listened in on a 5-minute conversation in French between the weather service in Martinique and NHC meteorologist Mike Tichacek, as they discussed when Martinique may want to issue a Hurricane Warning.

Intensity forecast for Tomas
The forecasters at NHC are puzzling over the latest intensity forecasts for Tomas. The latest intensity forecast from the GFDL, HWRF, and SHIPS models are not that impressive, and they keep Tomas as a strong tropical storm or weak hurricane for the next five days. The wind shear forecast from SHIPS is particularly odd--the latest 18Z forecast predicts high wind shear of 20+ knots beginning Sunday morning, and the previous SHIPS forecast held wind shear below 15 knots for the next five days. The latest runs by the GFS, ECMWF, and UKMET models all show a very favorable environment for intensification over the next five days over the Caribbean, with Tomas positioning itself beneath an upper level high in a light wind shear environment. The best bet is that Tomas will intensify into a major hurricane over the Central Caribbean by early next week.

Tomas' formation location unprecedented this late in the season
Tomas' formation ties 2010 with 1995 and 1887 for 3rd place for most number of named storms in an Atlantic hurricane season. Only 2005 (28 named storms) and 1933 (21 named storms) were busier. Atlantic hurricane records go back to 1851, though there were likely many missed named storms prior to the beginning of satellite coverage in the mid-1960s.

The formation of a tropical storm so far south and east this late in the season is unprecedented in the historical record; no named storm has ever been present east of the Lesser Antilles (60°W) and south of 12°N latitude so late in the year. Hurricane Six of 1896 came close--it was also a tropical storm south of 12°N and east of 60°W on October 29, but nine hours earlier in the day. That storm recurved to the north and missed the Lesser Antilles. Tomas' track through the southern Lesser Antilles so late in the year is unprecedented. There have been only two other tropical storms that formed after October 15 south of 12°N and east of 60°W: Hurricane Jose, which was a tropical storm in that region on October 18, 1999, and Tropical Storm Nicolas, on October 16, 2003. Tomas most reminds me of Hurricane Joan of 1988, which was a tropical storm on October 14 near Tomas' current location, and later strengthened into a Category 4 hurricane that hit Nicaragua.

Another unusual aspect of Tomas' formation is that we now have two simultaneous named storms in the Atlantic Ocean on October 29. There have been only four hurricane seasons since 1851 that have had two simultaneous named storms later in the year. The record was set way back in 1887, when Hurricane Eighteen and Tropical Storm Nineteen were both active on December 8. There were three years that had simultaneous November named storms: 1932, 1961, and 2001.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1677

Jason · Post by **Jason** » October 30th, 2010, 9:22 am

NORAD Dispatches Fighters to Escort Suspicious Aircraft
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=61488

....works like clockwork!

Military wants to scan communications to find internal threats
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-10-27/us/p ... d?_s=PM:US

....funny they've already been doing it for years!

Whistleblower: Coast Guard Implementing Martial Law
http://www.corbettreport.com/articles/2 ... _shine.htm

.....next it will be the National Guard - i.e. your local neighbors!

30 Reasons Why People Should Be Getting Really Nervous
http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i ... &Itemid=35

....far more than 30 I think!

QE2 Outcomes
http://www.wallstreetexaminer.com/blogs ... ahoo!+Mail

....more government ownership of the banks!

Very low fertility in Asia
http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com/%2 ... mid=38\%22

....wickedness!

Gorbachev : Americans Trained the Militants Who Are Terrorizing Afghanistan, and Killing US Troops
http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com/%2 ... id=126\%22

.....no surprise and don't need to be told by a new ager!

Jason · Post by **Jason** » November 1st, 2010, 12:15 pm

Is The Pharmaceutical Cure Part of the Disease?
http://www.activistpost.com/2010/10/is- ... sease.html

Aspartame - Sweet Misery
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 8524526735#

Placebo fraud rocks the very foundation of modern medical science; thousands of clinical trials invalidated
http://www.naturalnews.com/030209_place ... fraud.html

Decloaking perforin, the protein assassin
http://www.lifescientist.com.au/article ... _assassin/

The Inevitable Has Come To Pass and Those That Insured Guaranteed Blowups Are Being Blown Up - Finally!
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/inevit ... wn-finally

Washington Post Idiocy: Calls for War With Iran to Save America's Economy
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/

Jason · Post by **Jason** » November 1st, 2010, 2:14 pm

INDIANAPOLIS -- Armed security guards will be on hand at 36 unemployment offices around Indiana in what state officials said is a step to improve safety and make branch security more consistent.

No specific incidents prompted the action, Department of Workforce Development spokesman Marc Lotter told 6News' Norman Cox.

Lotter said the agency is merely being cautious with the approach of an early-December deadline when thousands of Indiana residents could see their unemployment benefits end after exhausting the maximum 99 weeks provided through multiple federal extension periods.

"Given the upcoming expiration of the federal extensions and the increased stress on some of the unemployed, we thought added security would provide an extra level of protection for our employees and clients," he said.

Some offices have had guards for nearly two years but those guards were hired on a regional basis, meaning some offices had armed guards while others did not, Lotter said.

The cost of the armed guards varies dramatically around the state. Lotter said the agency is trying to be more consistent and that it plans to employ armed guards in all 36 offices where unemployment insurance benefits are handled.

The overall cost for the security is $1 million, paid for with federal funds designated for administration of the unemployment system, Lotter said.

Other agency offices that provide job training or are not full-service branches will continue to have unarmed guards.

Lotter said state employees in the affected offices have also recently gone through stress-management training in which they learn how to respond appropriately to angry clients.

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/25539273/detail.html

George Hickenlooper, Director of ‘Casino Jack,’ a Film About Jack Abramoff, Found Dead
http://cryptogon.com/?p=18560

Prosecutors Say Vatican Bank is Continuing to Facilitate Money Laundering
http://publicintelligence.net/prosecuto ... aundering/

SEC: Government Destroyed Documents Regarding Pre-9/11 Put Options
http://www.federaljack.com/?p=17829

Personal income declines 0.1%, Spending increases 0.2% in September
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/ ... ed+Risk%29

It’s going to be a wild, wild week for certain as tomorrow is Election Day and we’ll be getting a flavor for the new political composition by Wednesday when the Fed will take the opportunity to QE the population to death, a hidden tax on all our earnings and savings. Then on Friday we’ll get the Employment Report for October.

The consensus for the Employment Report, by the way, is calling for +60,000 jobs despite a -95,000 print last month. That sounds overly optimistic to me, but of course if it misses it’ll mean QE3, right? … and so it must be good because the bankers are getting their way. For now, because there is no one there to stop them – no adults. And that’s exactly why the Democrats are going to give up power. The people are looking for adult leadership, but they will be woefully let down once again because both parties are simply extensions of the central banks who finance their campaigns.

Tired of the record number of political ads? You can thank the recent supreme court ruling for that which made corporations super human in terms of being able to “speak freely” with their money. This was dumb as a bag of rocks, as giving a business entity human protections under the law, is like giving a stone those same rights, and this insanity is cloaked under the Constitution and fed to people as being the right thing to do. And thus the people will pay the price for their apathy, they will wind up living in a corporate ruled state as we already do. The real question mark about the elections for me is if the new composition will pushback against the stimulus and bailouts.

Anytime the government takes their foot off the gas even a little the numbers plummet. Incomes going down against a background of Fed induced commodity price manipulation is a very dangerous thing for our nation – it’s already way out of hand.

The Manufacturing ISM and Construction Spending are released at 10 Eastern this morning.

So, what’s going to happen this week in regards to market action? Of course much depends on the manipulation announced by the “Fed.” The markets are way overbought, and yet everyone now expects a sell the news event. The most likely wave count I’ve seen suggests that there could be one more wave higher – perhaps we get a spike higher? I would tend to think that any further movement higher presents a good short opportunity, but we may not get it and front-running turns isn’t a smart play in my book.

The markets are going to come apart when the central bankers are pushed. I’m hearing a lot of talk about their fraud from states and from investors who bought their garbage – that’s where the real pushback is coming from, not from the pansy-#$%#% politicians nor the sold out mainstream media. What that pushback is really all about is the unraveling of their fraud. The fraud is still hidden by even more accounting fraud. But like all Ponzi Schemes, the banks cannot keep the game going forever because eventually they run out of willing suckers – take a look at the diminishing volume in the markets, same thing.

So it’s an extraordinarily dangerous time all the way around, the general population is only partially aware of the dangers that are present. The McClellan Oscillator remains in negative territory telling us that the majority of stocks are currently in downtrends – this, of course, is a divergence against generally rising price, one of many.

Several people have asked me to express an opinion in terms of the election and how to vote… My very cynical take is that at this juncture in history it doesn’t matter how you vote because you are presented with no choice whatsoever. Your choices are between candidates and issues that are all defined by the debt money corporate world in which we now live. Your vote will not change that. It will not change the fact that the central bankers have the real power… the power of money creation. But in general, a message can be sent by removing those who have voted in favor of TARP and in favor of the latest insurance subsidy scheme cloaked as a “healthcare” bill. The more pushback against the banks and their financing schemes the better. By the way, the unions are NOT the cause of the ills of our economy! The seemingly excess they may currently possess is a byproduct of the credit bubble blown by the banks! It is the WHO controls our money that is at the root of all the SYMPTOMS. If you wish to cure the disease, you do not treat the symptoms, you treat the root of the problem.

And thus to me our democracy is broken beyond the ability of the ballot to fix it. Real change will occur when votes are cast with something other than a ballot box.

http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2010/1 ... 11110.html

Vanishing stimulus funds — and changing government policies — are driving a decline in prison spending across 44 states, according to a new survey by the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonpartisan criminal justice research group based in New York.

Overall state spending on corrections has exploded 674 percent over the last quarter-century amid a surge in the nation's prison population. But the recession and its aftermath are having a profound effect on both incarceration and spending, according to the survey, which was funded by the Pew Center on the States, Stateline's parent organization.

Collectively, the 44 states that responded to the Vera survey spent $33.9 billion on corrections this fiscal year, down 1.05 percent from last year. States have used federal stimulus funds to help prop up their corrections budgets during the worst period of the economic downturn. Many are now being forced to provide more state dollars to help fill the void left by the expiring stimulus, and some are cutting back as a result.

But the study also finds specific state policies responsible for the decline in spending. More states, for example, are trying to divert nonviolent offenders from prison and are looking into cost-effective alternatives to incarceration. Meanwhile, they are saving money by reducing or eliminating services for inmates, thinning out or furloughing their workforces and closing prisons, among other steps.

Not every state is part of the spending decrease. While twenty-three of the 44 states that responded to the survey spent less on corrections this year than than they did last year, two (Arkansas and North Dakota) spent the same amount, and 19 spent more.

New York (9.51 percent), Connecticut (7.67 percent), Iowa (6.26 percent), Oklahoma (5.53 percent) and Illinois (5.47 percent) saw the largest year-over-year decreases. The largest increases in spending were in Wyoming (21.40 percent), West Virginia (9.58 percent), Pennsylvania (4.49 percent), Vermont (4.27 percent) and Louisiana (4.13 percent), though Wyoming’s increase is attributable to the opening of a new prison facility, according to the state.

As Stateline reported earlier this year, state prison populations overall declined in 2009 for the first time in 38 years, the result of changing policies and declining prison admissions.

http://www.stateline.org/live/details/s ... adlines%29

.....well so much for security!

Adams Arms Gas Piston/Op-Rod Retrofit Kits for Tactical and Competition AR (AR-15)/M4/M4A1 Carbines/SBRs: Smooth-Shooting, Accurate, and Reliable (Photos and Video!)
http://www.defensereview.com/adams-arms ... -reliable/

USA: BP disperants 'causing sickness'
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15637

Enemies Of America
http://www.floppingaces.net/2010/11/01/ ... of-america

9 people shot at Oakland Halloween party
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/201 ... htm?csp=hf

See What Ants Do To Aspartame
http://www.relfe.com/2010/aspartame_ant ... tml?ref=nf

Girls now reaching puberty at age nine, thanks to chemicals in the food supply (milk and plastics)
http://www.naturalnews.com/030228_puber ... icals.html

Eating almonds can help to fight off viruses
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/scie ... ruses.html

Three Volcanoes Show Signs of Increased Activity
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/thr ... ity/403875

Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano erupts again
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11656700

Second Indonesian volcano erupts
http://itn.co.uk/47c392486925e4ad29fe887f37b997fd.html

Jason · Post by **Jason** » November 2nd, 2010, 9:43 am

Chinese Exporters “Cope”
http://www.wallstreetexaminer.com/blogs ... ahoo!+Mail

Police: Shots fired at Coast Guard office in Va.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101102/ap_ ... d_shooting

Teterboro Crash Trial Coverup
http://www.madcowprod.com/11012010.htm

Woman Fired For Having Poor Credit
http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i ... &Itemid=33

Customer Spotlight - Divide Creek Farm Silt, CO
http://www.rimolgreenhouses.com/dividecreekfarm.php

The New Abnormal: Two Years Into The "Recovery", And The GDP Is Underperforming The Average By Over 50%
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/new-ab ... ge-over-50

The islands of St. Lucia, Barbados, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines continue to assess damage and clean up after Hurricane Tomas pounded the Lesser Antilles as a strengthening Category 1 hurricane with 90 - 95 mph winds on Saturday. St. Lucia was hardest hit, with fourteen people dead, many more missing, and damage estimated at $100 million--about 10% of the nation's GDP. Damage on neighboring St. Vincent was estimated at $62 million, which is 4% of that nation's GDP. The storm damaged 1,200 houses, and the northern half of the island, where most of the crops are, was badly hit, with no banana trees left standing and the plantain crop wiped out. Banana production employs 60% of the workforce on St. Vincent, and accounts for more than 50% of their exports. Also hard-hit was Barbados, where damage estimates are at $55 million, 1.5% of the nation's GDP. Tomas may be the most damaging storm to affect the island since Hurricane Janet of 1955. The havoc wreaked by Tomas in the Lesser Antilles makes is likely that the name Tomas will be retired from the list of active hurricane names in the Atlantic.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1681

US Federal Reserve's latest bubble threatens mayhem
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comm ... ayhem.html

Alan Grayson Demands Capital Buffer At TBTFs To Absorb Title Insurance Liabilities, Asks For New Stress Test
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/alan-g ... new-stress

Champion "Molon Labe" 1911
http://www.edbrown.com/champion.htm

Original_Intent · Post by **Original_Intent** » November 2nd, 2010, 10:15 am

With a GOP victory almost a sure thing today and with the Fed set to announce QE2 tomorrow, things are going to be pretty dicey.

My instincts tell me that we are going to enter a period of somewhat calm. Dollar will strengthen, commodities will stabilize and possibly drop some. I think we may get 6 months to a year of an overall sense of returning to normal.

I think this will provide us one last window of opportunity to prepare, and I personally believe that when the bottom falls out, it will not be over a matter of months or weeks, but of hours.

I believe it is possible that the stock market will set record highs within the next year. I am almost certain that if the events of the next two days go as expected (huge GOP win, and Fed announcing more QE) the STOCK markets will surge. PMs and oil will either be stable or drop, food prices will rise. Unemployment will start to decrease and wages will inch upwards. Home prices will continue to drop. Overall, I believe the average Joe will perceive this as a return to normalcy and everything back on track to prosperity. (Home values dropping and food prices rising being contrary to that).
We may even see some credit markets loosen up. I think the overall perception is going to be "crisis averted" and "we the people" asserted ourselves and are back in control.

These are just my non-technical gut feelings. I am no expert on markets, but I think I am pretty perceptive as to the manipulation of the masses. If I am correct, this time period can provide us with a great blessing of a grace period of relative "prosperity" where hopefully a good number of newly awakened people can finish their preparations for the coming storm.

By this time next year, I think we will be in the thick of it and a good deal of the smoke and mirrors will have been exposed.

edit: when making this many detailed guesses, the only sure thing is that I'll get at least some of it wrong.

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