Thanksgiving Gold Story

I wanted to get this off of my chest since the general public missed this move in gold during the Thanksgiving holiday.

Around 1030pm MST or 12:30am EST, gold started to fall off a cliff due to the “Dubai default news”. Supposedly this was a mini black swan event in which the market did not see it coming. In 2 hours, gold when from 1185 to 1135. A 50 point drop! For those who do not trade futures, gold is traded in 10 cent increments, which each 10 cent increment worth $10. So, a 10 point move in gold is 1k. You need apx 5k to trade 1 contract of gold. What is more amazing if the rally as it retraced 79% of the fall. So, if you were long gold on weds, you were down 10-15 points if you woke up on Friday and looked at the closing price.

Someone made a mini fortune on either end of this drop and rally…but on a late Thanksgiving night/ wee hours of Black Friday?

US Dollar's Orderly Decline

Link to the article.

The US dollar index dropped to a 15 month low on Weds.

"Movements in the options market were also consistent with the Fed's view on the dollar's "orderly" fall".

Timeout. If I am a freshman in college and in getting A's in the 1st semester, then B's in the second, then C's sophomore year and D's the 2nd half of sophomore year. So, the fed would be saying my fall or decline in grades is orderly??? I am on the 1 stop train to F's my junior year and failing out of college entirely by my senior year!

Why can't the fed put on the breaks, take the massive short term pain and put the US back onto the train of strong US dollar?

Joe Public does has not picked up on the falling US dollar. Ex. they had 10k cash in the bank in Jan and stayed in cash. They can not buy as much oil and gold with that 10k cash now as they could have back in Jan. They do not care since they still have 10k cash sitting in the bank and that 10k has not dropped to say 8k.

Remember When Goldman Leaked the GDP Growth as 2.7%, But Then Found Out They Were Way Off The Next Day When The Government Told Us It was Really 3.5%?

I posted about this last month. Today, the real GDP growth number came out and it was 2.8%!! I couldn't stop myself from laughing when I read about this. Of course, no one is reporting the strange coincidence that Goldman just happened to have the real number a month before the government. I think that this is pretty strong evidence pointing to the fact that everyone knew the real number all along and the government straight up lied in order to try to get the market to jump. This really isn't funny, but it's so ridiculous that it starts to be. In my original post I asked the question: "Did their buddies at the Fed tip them off?" I think we can now answer that question with a resounding YES!

Fort Hood and Changing Stories

I have been watching and listening to many of the original reports and the slow change into what we have now as the "official" story.  Listen to this guy who is on the military base and lists as one of the knowns that there was more than one shooter.  In fact, this was the story until about 8 hrs after the event.  Another part of the story we thought we knew until that time was that one of the suspects was dead.  Oh wait, actually he is alive.  Oops.  Come on, I really hope people are not so naive to believe some of these changes as honest mistakes and intense investigation for the truth.  We will never know the truth, unfortunately, but we know we are not getting anything close to it as of now.

This Global Temperature Graph from the CBO is Odd

They take the liberty of inventing a trend here, I am curious the basis here.

Paid time off for "catching" H1N1

Here is the link to the story. Hopefully this proposed bill does not pass.


If you work for a company that does not offer paid sick days, you can get 5 paid sick days if you have the swine flu.


What kinda moral hazard is this going to create?


If this were in effect today...Most people have off this coming Thurs/Fri paid time off for the Thanksgiving holiday. You will have an epidemic of people calling in on the following Monday, cough-cough I got the swine flu, see you in a week and please direct deposit my check.


Hypothetically, you have off Thurs the 26th through Sunday Dec 5th!! 11 days off in a row. All paid time off and not using any of your paid vacation days.

Is this does not make any sense to me and where is the money going to come from to fund it?

Shrink to Grow

This is a very telling:


This tells us that companies simply cut costs, largely through layoffs and inventory drawdowns to beat profit estimates.  This can not work for very long.

Once excess inventories are worked off the accounting can no longer cover up the reality of a shrinking economy.  This is happening rapidly.

(The Second Graph here amazingly added .94% to GDP, because it fell a lot, but not as much as previous.  So less bad, which is still worse than we have seen previous.)




Unemployment is increasing rapidly as well at 10.2% (so they say, we know it is much larger).

The story goes that this is the sign of the end of a recession since when the inventories run down enough they need to start producing more which needs employees.  This could very well be true, I don't believe it is what will occur,  but that is for another post.

The point is the profits we are seeing are not because of increased revenue or consumer demand.  The market is a bubble right now and  would not hold onto long positions much longer.  We will see what unfolds in the next few months.

Nutley Board of Education members want to fine parents for kid's detention (Star Ledger)

"The board members, Steven Rogers and Walter Sautter, say they are hoping to adopt a policy by next school year that would charge parents for detention, which they estimate costs the district $10,000 a year in overtime and maintenance fees." 
 Read the rest here 

I never realized they paid overtime for detentions.  This is already a strong incentive for teachers to give out detentions, and now they add to it a tax on the parents.  I wonder if the teachers will be given a quota of detentions they must give every month, similar to police and traffic tickets.  Think about it, imagine you got off from your job at 2:30-4:00 depending on district and grade you teach.  If you could get time and a half (I believe this is legal minimum for overtime pay) for and extra hour every day, and still be done by 3:30 or 5:00, would you?  Again, they already are tax eaters, they won't think twice about feeding a little more, especially close to retirement to rack up pension benefits.  I can see this becoming something that will be more common in the future.  I can also see rates of detention going through the roof.

Maricopa County Officer Swipes Paper From Defense Lawyer's File.

Video Here. Summary: Cop (Adam Stoddard) walks up to the defense lawyer's table during a hearing, swipes a letter out of the lawyer's file and pawns the letter off to an obese cop (Francisco Campillo) who waddles away with the document.

The deputy was later found to be in contempt of court. However, the fact that he felt that he could get away with something like this, especially considering how casual he acted as he walked up and just started going through the defense attorney's files, seems to indicate that this was not something new just for this instance. If the defendant had not been so alert as to catch him in the act, he probably would have gotten away with it this time too. Note the quote from Maricopa County Sheriff, and well known douchebag, Joe Arpaio: “My officer was doing his job and I will not stand by and allow him to be thrown to the wolves by the courts because they feel pressure from the media on this situation,” Arpaio said in a press release. He further said, "I decide who holds press conferences and when they are held regarding this Sheriff’s Office.” Thanks Joe. I guess the police now get to decide what evidence is admissible in trial now. Glad to hear it. I'm not sure what the Arizona Rules of Evidence are, but I am very familiar with the Federal Rules of Evidence, which have been adopted in most states, and I think it's safe to say that the Judge, and only the Judge, is the one that makes evidentiary rulings about what is admissible at trial. I'm also pretty sure that the police are not supposed to be involved in this process in any way as it would be the Prosecutor's job to challenge the contents of the swiped document. But what the hell, if Joe Arpaio says the officer was doing his job that is good enough for me.

Secret Global Copyright Agreement - Internet Privacy Will Vanish

Impossible, right?  I mean at least the transparent government of Obama would have filled us in, right?  HaHa!  Show me someone who trusts government and I will show you a fool, which is most of the people I come in contact with daily.  It is sad, but it will happen, I suggest finding a way to be untraced and soon.

Silverdome Sold for 583k (Not a Misprint)

Yes I am talking about "The Silverdome."  You know, the one where the Detroit Lions used to play.  Does Barry Sanders Ring a bell?  This was a cost of $55.7 million 35 years ago.  Adjusted for inflation you lost your ass!

Read about it here.

Standard & Poor's New Policy: Concealing the S&P 500 P/E Ratio from the General Public

Gary North

Nov. 17, 2009

Some high-level decision-maker at Standard & Poor's has decided that the public should no longer be allowed easy access to this crucial number: the Price/Earnings ratio of the S&P 500.

That number went above 140 on September 31, 2009 -- the highest ever recorded. It had continued upward all year.

I went to the old page late last week. The page has been totally redesigned. The P/E ratio was missing.

I wrote to the webmaster and asked where the figure is reported. On November 16, I received this reply.

Thank you for your inquiry. Last week our website was upgraded and so some information has moved, or has be removed. For information regarding the S&P 500 please see the below link to the website:

http://www.standardandpoors.com/indices/sp-500/en/us/?indexId=spusa-500-usduf--p-us-l--

On the left hand side of this page you will be able to see information regarding Index Data and Index Information (Including Earnings data). To see the Index data you will need to register your details. If you click on one of the spreadsheet icons, this will link you to a login page, please click the link "Register Here" and enter your details accordingly. You will then be sent an email with your password for the site. If you then go back to the original link, enter your login name and password, you will be able to open the documents.

If you require further assistance regarding this issue, please refer to your inquiry number in this email.

Thank you for contacting S&P INDICES Client Services.

We value your opinion, please feel free to provide us with Feedback on our service:

http://event.standardandpoors.com/content/US_IN_Email_Client_Service_Feedback

This is a polite way of saying, "This site is not for the sake of the general public. It is for the sake of the retail brokerage industry. So, please go away."

My guess is that the company came under pressure from the brokerage industry to stop publishing what has to be a frightening statistic for brokers, a statistic that says "Sell!"

Because the company has solicited feedback, I suggest that you provide it. Ask that the P/E ratio be restored. Here is what the page looked like two weeks ago:

I suggest that you forward this article to anyone you know who would like to have the P/E ratio available just as it was a month ago. You know: visible.

Latest Executive Order to Employ Returning Vets in the Federal Government

For what exactly, we shall see.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
___________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                                                              November 9, 2009

Executive Order

- - - - -

Employment of Veterans in the Federal Government

By the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3 of the United States Code, I hereby order as follows:

Section 1. Policy. Veterans have served and sacrificed in defense of our Nation. When they complete their service, we must do everything in our power to assist them in re-entering civilian life and finding employment. Government as well as private employers should play a prominent role in helping veterans who may be struggling to find jobs. As one of the Nation's leading employers, the Federal Government is in need of highly skilled individuals to meet agency staffing needs and to support mission objectives. Our veterans, who have benefited from training and development during their military service, possess a wide variety of skills and experiences, as well as the motivation for public service, that will help fulfill Federal agencies' staffing needs. It is therefore the policy of my Administration to enhance recruitment of and promote employment opportunities for veterans within the executive branch, consistent with merit system principles and veterans' preferences prescribed by law. The Federal Government will thereby help lead by example in promoting veterans' employment.

Sec. 2. Council on Veterans Employment. There is hereby established an interagency Council on Veterans Employment (Council), to be co-chaired by the Secretaries of Labor and Veterans Affairs. The Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) shall serve as Vice Chair of the Council.

   (a) Mission and Function of the Council. The Council shall:

      (i) advise and assist the President and the Director of OPM in establishing a coordinated Government-wide effort to increase the number of veterans employed by the Federal Government by enhancing recruitment and training;

      (ii) serve as a national forum for promoting veterans' employment opportunities in the executive branch; and

      (iii) establish performance measures to assess the effectiveness of, and submit an annual report to the President on the status of, the Veterans Employment Initiative described in section 3 of this order.

   (b) Membership of the Council. The Council shall consist of the heads of the following agencies and such other executive branch agencies as the President may designate:

      (i) the Department of State;

      (ii) the Department of the Treasury;

      (iii) the Department of Defense;

      (iv) the Department of Justice;

      (v) the Department of the Interior;

      (vi) the Department of Agriculture;

      (vii) the Department of Commerce;

      (viii) the Department of Labor;

      (ix) the Department of Health and Human Services;

      (x) the Department of Housing and Urban Development;

      (xi) the Department of Transportation;

      (xii) the Department of Energy;

      (xiii) the Department of Education;

      (xiv) the Department of Veterans Affairs;

      (xv) the Department of Homeland Security;

      (xvi) the Environmental Protection Agency;

      (xvii) the National Aeronautics and Space Administration;

      (xviii) the Agency for International Development;

      (xix) the General Services Administration;

      (xx) the National Science Foundation;

      (xxi) the Nuclear Regulatory Commission;

      (xxii) the Office of Personnel Management;

      (xxiii) the Small Business Administration; and

      (xxiv) the Social Security Administration. A member of the Council may designate, to perform the Council functions of the member, a senior official who is part of the member's agency, and who is a full-time officer or employee of the Federal Government.

   (c) Administration of the Council. The Co-Chairs shall convene meetings of the Council, determine its agenda, and direct its work. At the direction of the Co-Chairs, the Council more 3 may establish subgroups consisting exclusively of Council members or their designees, as appropriate. The Vice Chair shall designate an Executive Director for the Council to support the Vice Chair in managing the Council's activities. The OPM shall provide administrative support for the Council to the extent permitted by law and within existing appropriations.

   (d) Steering Committee. There is established within the Council a Steering Committee consisting of the Secretaries of Defense, Labor, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security, the Director of OPM, and any other Council member designated by the Co-Chairs. The Steering Committee shall be responsible for providing leadership, accountability, and strategic direction to the Council.

Sec. 3. Veterans Employment Initiative. The agencies represented on the Council shall participate in a Veterans Employment Initiative (Initiative). Under the Initiative, each participating agency shall, to the extent permitted by law:

   (a) develop an agency-specific Operational Plan for promoting employment opportunities for veterans, consistent with the Government-wide Veterans Recruitment and Employment Strategic Plan described in section 4 of this order, merit system principles, the agency's strategic human capital plan, and other applicable workforce planning strategies and initiatives;

   (b) within 120 days of the date of this order, establish a Veterans Employment Program Office, or designate an agency officer or employee with full-time responsibility for its Veterans Employment Program, to be responsible for enhancing employment opportunities for veterans within the agency, consistent with law and merit system principles, including developing and implementing the agency's Operational Plan, veterans recruitment programs, and training programs for veterans with disabilities, and for coordinating employment counseling to help match the career aspirations of veterans to the needs of the agency;

   (c) provide mandatory annual training to agency human resources personnel and hiring managers concerning veterans' employment, including training on veterans' preferences and special authorities for the hiring of veterans;

   (d) identify key occupations for which the agency will provide job counseling and training to better enable veterans to meet agency staffing needs associated with those occupations; and

   (e) coordinate with the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to promote further development and application of technology designed to assist transitioning service members and veterans with disabilities.

Sec. 4. Additional Responsibilities of the Director of the Office of Personnel Management. The Director of OPM shall, in consultation with the Council and to the extent permitted by law:

   (a) develop a Government-wide Veterans Recruitment and Employment Strategic Plan, to be updated at least every 3 years, addressing barriers to the employment of veterans in the executive branch and focusing on:

      (i) identifying actions that agency leaders should take to improve employment opportunities for veterans;

      (ii) developing the skills of transitioning military service members and veterans;

      (iii) marketing the Federal Government as an employer of choice to transitioning service members and veterans;

      (iv) marketing the talent, experience, and dedication of transitioning service members and veterans to Federal agencies; and

      (v) disseminating Federal employment information to veterans and hiring officials;

   (b) provide Government-wide leadership in recruitment and employment of veterans in the executive branch;

   (c) identify key occupations, focusing on positions in high-demand occupations where talent is needed to meet Government-wide staffing needs, for which the Federal Government will provide job counseling and training under section 5(a) of this order to veterans and transitioning military service personnel;

   (d) develop mandatory training for both human resources personnel and hiring managers on veterans' employment, including veterans' preference and special hiring authorities;

   (e) compile and post on the OPM website Government-wide statistics on the hiring of veterans; and

   (f) within 1 year of the date of this order and with the advice of the Council, provide recommendations to the President on improving the ability of veterans' preference laws to meet the needs of the new generation of veterans, especially those transitioning from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the needs of Federal hiring officials.

Sec. 5. Responsibilities of the Secretaries of Defense, Labor, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security. The Secretaries of Defense, Labor, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security shall take the following actions, to the extent permitted by law:

   (a) The Secretaries of Defense, Labor, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security shall, in consultation with OPM, develop and implement counseling and training programs to align veterans' and transitioning service members' skills and career aspirations to Federal employment opportunities, targeting Federal occupations that are projected to have heavy recruitment needs.

   (b) The Secretary of Labor shall conduct employment workshops for veterans and transitioning military service personnel as part of the Transition Assistance Program (TAP), more 5 and integrate in those workshops information about the Federal hiring process, veterans' preference laws, special hiring authorities, and Federal job opportunities.

   (c) The Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Homeland Security (with respect to the Coast Guard) shall:

      (i) reinforce military leadership's commitment and support of the service members' transition process; and

      (ii) institute policies that encourage every eligible service member to take the opportunity to enroll in any or all of the four components of the TAP.

      (d) The Secretaries of Labor and Veterans Affairs shall:

      (i) assist veterans and transitioning service members in translating military skills, training, and education to Federal occupations through programs developed under subsection (a) of this section; and

      (ii) provide training to employment and rehabilitation counselors on the Federal hiring process, veterans' preferences, special hiring authorities, and identifying Federal employment opportunities for veterans. Sec. 6. General Provisions.

   (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

      (i) authority granted by law to a department or agency or the head thereof; or

      (ii) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

   (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

   (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE,
November 9, 2009.

The US Annual Interest on Debt to Surpass Military Budget in 2017

This chart and a short description can be found on the CFR Webpage 


This is astounding and will most likely be worse than expected.  

"The Greatest Shortcoming of the Human Race is our Inability to Understand The Exponential Function"

 Those are the words of Dr Albert A. Bartlett in a video where he simplifies it for the layman using The Rule of 70 .  Here is a graphical representation of the exponential function:

Now look at the following charts from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.  Do you see a resemblance?

Things are at the point of running away.  We have no hope unless you think our government will suddenly decide to cut its size and budgets to a fraction of what they currently are.  This will not happen.  Politicians always grow government, no matter what they tell you on the campaign trail.


When a government goes in debt, it is not the body of government who will have to pay those bills.  It is obvious, but important we realize we owe this money.  It will be paid in 2 ways, taxes and inflation.  Essentially they have sold our future labor and will force us to pay for it whether we agree with their policies or not.  I don't think I am taking a leap when I call this "soft" slavery, although the IRS is not that soft.

H1N1 "super flu" plague in Ukraine spark concern

(NaturalNews) Here's what we know with some degree of certainty about the H1N1 virus in Ukraine right now: nearly 300 people have died from the viral strain, and over 65,000 people have been hospitalized (the actual numbers are increasing by the hour). The virus appears to be either a highly aggressive mutation of the globally-circulating H1N1 strain, or a combination of three different influenza strains now circulating in Ukraine. Some observers suspect this new "super flu" might be labeled viral hemorrhagic pneumonia (meaning it destroys lung tissue until your lungs bleed so much that you drown in your own fluid), but that has not been confirmed by any official sources we're aware of.


Read the Rest Here 

Matty Baby, Maybe You Can Help Them Out?

Mises.org is looking for help on some programming for their internet site.  If it is not too time consuming maybe you could figure it out.

If the Recession is Over How Do you Explain This?

Why would the banks be increasing their reserves held at the Federal Reserve in what the graph shows as longer and faster than any period since the steep clime in late 2008 if the recession were really over?  It is obvious the banks are still scared stiff as we all should be worried since things will get a lot worse before they get better.

This Was Expected, But Still a Good Laugh

The Heroic Muhammad Ali

Imagine the day our entire country tells our government elites to shove it up their ass cause we won't murder another person for their pride, oil, treasure and imperialist agenda.  We must ask the question of cui bono?  It ain't us, and it damn sure ain't the innocent people we are slaughtering.  We must refuse to fight on all grounds.  We have a bunch of chicken hawks who were too soft to fight the wars themselves when they were of age, but now they talk tough as if they would stand the front lines for their cause.  Hell no, they are using us like pawns and the value of your life and my life is nothing to them.  More of our soldiers have died than the number who perished on 9/11.  This is not a victory and this is not the way to secure our safety.  I think we should all be terrified of what the future holds for our country when we are no longer the worlds superpower.  Imagine the roles reversed.  Imagine your mom and sister raped by soldiers marching through your block.  Imagine your town in ruins and water supplies diseased.  Imagine your entire family dead or mangled, and being labled terrorists in order to keep the civilian death counts down.  Then imagine what you would do.  For Us not to excpect retaliation is ignorant.  And no, this is not me condoning the retaiation and murder that occurs from other countries or groups.  It is just reality.  We lost 3,000 in the Twin Towers.  As a result of embargo's from the 1st Iraq invasion to 2003 when we went again, close to 500,000 Iraqi children died.  Here is what our US ambassador to the UN said about that when asked.

Disgusting.  And no matter how brainwashed you are, no one can make a case for the guilt of these children, so please do not try.  By doing so you just have decided that the life of someone who happens to be born in Iraq is automatically worth next to nothing, where as if you come out of the womb within these divine borders your life is naturally worth let's say, half a million Iraqi children, at least.

So I was wrong, that was in 1996 when the count was half a million dead children, imagine how many died after.  But we talk about 9/11 as if it is a pass to slaughter all those who we decide may be a "terrorist", we can usually identify them by where they live, who they pray to, and of course when they decide they don't like their kids being starved to death or their homes being bombed.  We used to call them "freedom fighters" when they were fighting the Soviet Union Occupation in the 80's, but of course the Soviets didn't have the good fortune of being born within these sacred (albeit arbitrary) borders.  So we need to follow this man's lead.


(And before you jump down his neck for any anti-white comments, remember how the whites treated the blacks in this time.  I personally don't believe he meant these comments as every single white person, just more about the laws of the white man that kept the colored down.)

One of My Favorite Articles from Bastiat:

Petition of the Manufacturers of Candles, Waxlights, Lamps, Candlelights, Street Lamps, Snuffers, Extinguishers, and the Producers of Oil, Tallow, Resin, Alcohol, and, Generally, of Everything Connected with Lighting

To the Members of the Chamber of Deputies.

Gentlemen:

You are on the right road. You reject abstract theories, and have little consideration for cheapness and plenty. Your chief care is the interest of the producer. You desire to protect him from foreign competition and reserve the national market for national industry.

We are about to offer you an admirable opportunity of applying your — what shall we call it? — your theory? No; nothing is more deceptive than theory — your doctrine? your system? your principle? But you dislike doctrines, you abhor systems, and as for principles you deny that there are any in social economy. We shall say, then, your practice — your practice without theory and without principle.

Hypocritical a Little?

Israel proposes work camps for illegal migrants 


The definition of a hypocrite :

–noun

1.	a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, esp. a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.

2.	a person who feigns some desirable or publicly approved attitude, esp. one whose private life, opinions, or statements belie his or her public statements.