America Panic

Coming Soon, To a Town Near You...

2009-04-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

Riots. Looting. Angry Mobs, not the normal kind.

This is what TPTB have to look forward to. You cannot steal tens of trillions from the taxpayer, to enrich The Bankster Class so that they may then buy up everything that everyone owns when The Super Depression arrives, and expect the taxpayer to just sit idly by and let t happen.

Riot police clash.

LONDON (AP) -- G-20 protesters clashed with riot police in downtown London on Wednesday, breaking into the heavily guarded Royal Bank of Scotland and smashing its windows. Earlier, they tried to storm the Bank of England and pelted police with eggs and fruit.

At least 4,000 anarchists, anti-capitalists, environmentalists and others jammed into London's financial district for what they called "Financial Fool's Day." The protests were called ahead of Thursday's summit of world leaders, who hope to take concrete steps to resolve the global financial crisis that has lashed nations and workers worldwide.

Some protesters spray-painted the side of the RBS building with the phrases "class war" and "thieves." Others pushed against columns of riot police who swatted them away with batons.

Demonstrators shouted "Abolish Money!" and clogged streets in the area known as "The City" even as Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama held a news conference elsewhere in the British capital.

At least eight people were arrested but there were no serious injuries reported.

Royal Bank of Scotland is at the center of protesters' anger because it had to be bailed out by the British government after a series of disastrous deals brought it to the brink of bankruptcy. The bank is now majority-owned by the British taxpayer.

Despite that, its former chief executive Fred Goodwin -- aged just 50 -- managed to walk off with a tidy $1 million annual pension for life, while unemployment in Britain now tops 2 million and is heading towards 3 million by the end of this year. Goodwin has been vilified by the British press.

RBS posted a British record loss of 24.1 billion pounds for 2008. The British government has invested 20 billion pounds in propping up the bank.

Helicopters hovered above the protests and some buildings were boarded up. Many banks had extra security and hundreds of police officers lined the streets.

"Every job I apply for there's already 150 people who have also applied," said protester Nathan Dean, 35, who lost his information technology job three weeks ago. "I have had to sign on to the dole (welfare) for the first time in my life. You end up having to pay your mortgage on your credit card and you fall into debt twice over."

Demonstrators hoisted effigies of the "four horsemen of the apocalypse," representing war, climate chaos, financial crimes and homelessness.

"The greed that is driving people is tearing us apart," said Steve Lamont, 45, flanked by his family and protesters who were banging on bells, playing drums and blowing whistles.

One police officer lost his helmet and demonstrators tossed it around like a trophy and chanted slogans.

Fearing they would be targeted by protesters, some bankers swapped their pinstripe suits for casual wear and others stayed home. Bolder financial workers leaned out their office windows Wednesday, taunting demonstrators and waving 10 pound notes at them.

Especially in Britain, bankers have been lambasted as being greedy and blamed for the recession that is making jobless ranks soar.

"It seems like everything is in a mess," said protester Steve Johnson, 49, an unemployed construction worker. "You get bankers getting massive bonuses, and the MPs (British lawmakers) are lining their own pockets."

Protesters waved banners reading "Banks are evil," "Eat the bankers," and "0% interest in others."

One protester dressed as the Easter bunny managed to hop through the police cordon but was stopped before he could reach the Bank of England. Another black-clad demonstrator waved a fake light saber at officers.

Musician and political activist Billy Bragg said the time was now to make a difference.

"It's better than sitting down shouting at the television at these bankers," he said. "We cannot go back to the way things were before to the million-dollar bonus culture."

The Calls for Torches, Pitchforks and Mobs Has Begun...

2009-03-26T16:59:00.000-07:00

This little missive is making the rounds, originally from Something Awful. Be wary and have your AV on - many ads are not safe, and the entire website is Not Safe For Work. NSFW.

The letter in its entirety:

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/feature-articles/death-wall-street.php

DEAR Wall Street,

What a bunch of whiny f**king babies. John Galt would be puking blood for 200-pages over this load of sh**, you bunch of sobbing welfare queens. You f**ked up. You ruined everything. You broke it, and we f**king bought it, because big baby was too big baby to fail.

We get it all ways from you motherf**kers. You're robbing us of our present and future now, but first you stepped on our throats on your way to the top. You raked in the money with a bunch of made up fantasyland bullsh** that wouldn't fool a counting horse on America's Funniest Home Videos, but somehow suckered in every major bank in the world.

Credit default swaps.

Those things are so f**king dumb that when you explain them to somebody and they laugh about how dumb they are you've got to act like ooooh they're so magical and complicated. Far too complex for the plebes to get. No! Wrong! Go into OTB and put fifty dollars on Rambo's Beautiful Blood. You just bought a credit default swap. Whoaaa you're blowing my simple pea brain with your fancy Wall Street talkin'. You sadsack fuckers.

So everybody bought into your big scheme, even when they didn't know they were playing, and now the whole thing has come crashing down because too many people won the f**king unbelievably obvious bet that a million illegal immigrants were going to default on million dollar home loans. Suddenly all your stupid fake money is gone, but if it's gone the whole system of bullsh** lies collapses and you look like d**kheads. So whoopty-doo, now we gotta make the fake money turn real or else the house of sh**ty c**t cards comes crashing down, only there isn't enough real money to cover all the fake money, so we're making more real money.

Then there's A.I.G., the bad seed, the carbuncle on our anus, the weeping wound in our tit, the sorry source of all our misery and woe. This is the monster garage full of miscreants that dreamed up the fire-breathing nitro-gulping predicament we're in right f**king now. Their financial products division created the derivatives market from lies and their executives raked in billions in bonuses and easy money. While they were peddling bad bets, median wages in the US stagnated and poor working schmucks leaned increasingly on credit to get by. Prices on everything were going up, but credit was easy to come by what with all that bullsh** money to throw around. And then the good days ended, for the poor sh**head in the middle class anyway. While you a**holes on Wall Street were lining up for your first round at the government trough, the poor f**kers that had been using credit cards to maintain their standard of living from the 1990s were beginning to lose everything. Their houses, cars, health care, and even their jobs were disappearing. F**kers at Merrill-Lynch, A.I.G., Citi Group, Bank of America, and on, and on, and f**king on were taking huge bonuses or executive compensation packages. They were "retiring" to third world countries where their fortunes would set them up like kings.

And listen up motherf**kers, because we f**king paid for it. Us. The f**king taxpaying public. The dudes you have been grinding beneath your heels since you first read Ayn Rand and sociopathed your way through econ 101. We're your paymasters now, f**kers. And yeah, your tools in the government and in the press are between you and us for now, but we've got one trick up our sleeve. One and only recourse while you're raping us for our last f**king dollars.

We can get pissed. We can let the hate take over and form a f**king mob. When you take home bonuses from our money, when you get our bailouts and have your lobster luncheons or your strippers and coke parties at the Mirage, we'll be there with our torches and our f**king pitchforks. And just because you got your little crybaby letter in the New York Times, just because "the media narrative" is turning back in your favor, doesn't mean we have forgotten. We're pissed and we know what you did.

Jake DeSantis, you f**king narcissist, don't give me that bullsh** self-pitying resignation letter. Don't tell me you weren't the dick that has been f**king this country, just the hand on its throat. Don't make me laugh with your charity donation lesson in life. Let me give you a life lesson. We'll go through the Red Cross and the March of Dimes to get to you. We'll leave Jerry's Kids mewling and thrashing in the gutters and overturn the Salvation Army Kettle to get our f**king money back.

You're all scum. Villains. And before this is through blood will be shed. Human blood that doesn't come out of a gigantic f**king vagina like yours, DeSantis. It's not a threat, it's a promise you're making to us.

"Come get us," you're sneering.

"I hope you like to eat turds from a human butt," we're sneering right back.

Your offices will be lit from within by the fires of a thousand burning evil motherf**kers and their evil personal assistants. There will be chaos. Triple chaos. Saigon all over again. They'll be pushing G5s off the deck of an aircraft carrier to make room for the next private jet escaping New York. We'll string the filth of the NYSE from lamp posts and Rick Santelli's empty sockets will look out on the streets, choked with useless paper and cars torched for insurance money.

The orgy of our outrage will be legendary. We'll cut off hands and feet and gouge out tender parts. We'll feed chopped up guts to dogs and rotting carcasses can fertilize urban gardens. Remember that tree they put Conan on? No, that's not for you, that's for your wives! You should be so lucky!

The last of you, the scarred remnants of your horrible tribe, can read this to a congressional hearing, your voices quivering with indignation while pale fists hammer on the glass and cry to see your blood spill out in a red gush across the steps of the Capitol.

You motherf**kers had better be afraid. You haven't learned your lesson yet, but we have.

DEATH TO WALL STREET!

Sincerely and with warmest regards,

Zack Parsons

Why the End of America is Closer than You Think

2009-03-23T16:16:00.000-07:00

Adams get most of it right, although he repeats the bad data that the FOMC is going to increase the money supply 15X. That is bad analysis from another article - actual increase will be 4X, and the price of goods doesn't increase with the money supply on a 1:1 linear basis.

Rest of the article is spot-on.

(Sunday, March 22, 2009 by: Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

CounterThink) I recently moved to Ecuador. Not for a vacation. Not for a month or two. I moved to Ecuador for good, as a permanent resident. Upon hearing my plans for living in South America, many people who knew me in the States asked things like, "Well what about the stability of Ecuador as a nation?" To which I would respond, "Oh, you mean the stability of banks that don't make loans and don't invest in derivatives? You mean the stability of a nation where the population still has the courage to march in the streets and throw corrupt officials out of its capitol?"

These questions make Americans pause. Most tend to think of public demonstrations as signs of a political instability. But in fact, public demonstrations are a sign of a healthy Democratic process. And Democracy is alive and well in Ecuador (with the usual level of corruption you find in any democracy).

It is in America, where the sheeple have been terrorized into staying inside the boundaries of their little "protest zones," that you find a fragile, unstable nation.

Through complacency and fear-mongering, most Americans have become cowards when it comes to political activism. They think emailing their Senator a few times a year is all that's required to defend freedom and preserve a nation. Marching in the streets is seen as uncivilized... or even unpatriotic! The government agrees with this, too, now labeling anyone who protests in public a "potential terrorist" and targeting them for FBI investigations. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C29...)

The multi-trillion-dollar theft scheme
In the mean time, while the sheeple of America are caught up in their hypnotic dreams of world domination, white-collar hoodlums in Washington D.C. and Wall Street are stealing everything!

The oft-repeated creation of $1 trillion in new money out of thin air by the Federal Reserve has made the U.S. dollar the laughing stock of the world. The leaders of the G20 nations have already decided to ditch the dollar and shift to other world reserve currencies, and China is now blatantly and publicly asking the U.S. put up some kind of collateral to back up future debt purchases, to which the U.S. says "Don't worry about the debt. We're good for it!"

And when $165 million in bonus money got paid to AIG employees, the tyrants in Washington demonstrated the true reach of their confiscatory punishment by enacting, within mere days, a 90% income tax rate on those bonuses. Sure, I agree those AIG executives deserve no bonus money, but the fact that the legislative branch of the U.S. government can reach out and hammer a targeted group of U.S. citizens with a retroactive 90% income tax rate should send shivers through any American that earns any income at all.

It has all taken on the caricature of a political circus. The perception around the world now is that America is not merely a land of the incompetent and the bankrupt; it's also a land of fiscal buffoons and political puppets who have no real ability to save the crashing economy.

The Fed's plan to increase the money supply 15-fold
But the real story starts to unfold when you realize the Federal Reserve is now hell bent on multiplying the U.S. money supply by a whopping fifteen times in 2009! This excellent article explains how this number is derived: http://www.marketskeptics.com/2009/...

Now think about this: If the Federal Reserve increases the U.S. money supply by a factor of fifteen, that means your dollars will be worth only 1/15th the value they represent right now. So a loaf of bread that costs a dollar right now could cost $15 when all this extra money ripples through the system. (Which will obviously take a couple of years, but 2009 will be the beginning of it.)

This is called "hyperinflation." We're talking about a loss of over 93% of the purchasing power of the dollar. That, my friends, is called a collapse of the currency.

And once it starts, the floodgates will be opened and the tsunami of investors and nations offloading dollars will be catastrophic and irreversible. By the time it's all done, the dollar might end up losing 99.9% of its value, and you can use greenbacks to light a fire or wipe your back side, as they will be useless for anything else.

Why America's currency -- and government -- is headed for total collapse
That's why I say America's days are numbered. The America as we know it, at least. This repeated creation of trillions of dollars in new money by the Federal Reserve is the last great looting of the U.S. economy by the wealthy elite. The Titanic is sinking, and high officials have monopolized the life rafts, leaving everyone else to drown with the ship. And while they're rowing away from the doomed vessel that's taking on water, they shout back to the low-income workers clinging to the rails, "Don't worry! The ship isn't really sinking. It's just 'correcting!'"

The truth is that America IS sinking -- and it's not just the currency I'm talking about here: America's criminal health care system has sickened the population and outlawed any real healing practices, too. Meanwhile, the FDA and FTC have attempted to destroy all knowledge of natural remedies that can prevent and cure disease, further compromising the future of the American People.

On the dollars-and-cents side, America's economy is a fictitious mish-mash of corporations selling poisons to the people, and people buying junk they don't need, and everybody paying through the nose for disease care services that ultimately provide no net benefit to the population.

America's infrastructure is crumbling, its industries are already gutted, and its exports resemble third-world agricultural nations more than first-world developed nations. Its political leadership is, with very few exceptions, a band of diseased, ignorant influence peddlers who sell out their constituents at every opportunity.

Perhaps more importantly, America has abandoned the principle of law. Laws no longer matter in America because they are selectively enforced only against those who threaten powerful institutions or corporations. America is no longer a nation of freedom and justice for all. Rather, it is a nation of greed and profit for the few, followed by oppression and bankruptcy for everybody else.

What's coming soon for America
Given these circumstances, it is not difficult to predict the demise of America as we know it. The U.S. dollar will eventually collapse or be abandoned. This could happen literally overnight, or it could take years, but make no mistake: The American people will not be forewarned of the collapse of the dollar. It will be a sudden, surprise announcement, and all the politicians and banking elitists who engineered the whole thing will pronounce their "shock" that such a thing could happen! "We could never have predicted this," they will insist, even while the whole thing was actually engineered by the very same people.

One day, Americans will wake up and discover that all banks are on "bank holidays" (which means that someone in Washington is taking a holiday with your money while YOU can't access it).

Within hours, the National Guard will roll into the cities of the United States, and Americans will find themselves penniless prisoners in their own country. Anyone who protests will be arrested or shot. Law will be dispensed at the end of military rifles, and the President will get on television and explain how this is all being done for YOUR benefit! It's for your own safety and protection, didn't you know?

From here, it's difficult to say exactly what will unfold. We could see UN troops on U.S. soil, the IMF taking over the U.S. banking system, and the forced transition to a global currency. Other possibilities include the Balkanization of the formerly-united States of America, with regional nation-states declaring their own independence from Washington.

During this chaos, just-in-time delivery of food and products will grind to a halt. Store shelves will be emptied. A healthy economy of barter will immediately spring up to fill the void. Those who have things to trade (toilet paper, butter, salt, sugar, matches, gold, silver, food, fuel, etc.) will eat. Those who don't will starve. Health will plummet and infectious disease will become a very real threat in many cities. The conventional medical system will, of course, be utterly useless and will run out of medicine within days or weeks.

This economic transition chaos will be short-lived, however, and from the ashes of economic turmoil will spring a new nation (or nations) of People who have finally awakened from their complacency. New governments will be forged, and the fields of economic ruin will be ripe for the planting and sprouting of new ideas from a new generation of visionary leaders.

In my related article called How to Create A Healthy, Wealthy, Abundant Nation from the Ashes of America's Demise, I discuss some advanced ideas of how new nation states might structure themselves in a way that creates lasting health, wealth and abundance for its citizens. Read that story on the other network I write for. Just enter the title shown above in the search box of the other website (NN).

The Cause of this Mess

2009-03-22T22:29:00.001-07:00

Posted by aheadace at 9:25 PM : Mar 22, 2009:
"Well dj292009 who are you going to blame you Republicans pick an chose one time you blame Clinton the next time its Obama then when it comes to Bush then it is congress and then its the Democrats had it for the last two years it's all there fault. Well the truth it was the Republicans BUSH/CHENEY AND THERE BULLSHI! so you Republicans go sit in the corner suck you thumb and keep your mouth shut."

I know most of you think so, but the President does NOT control the economy, he never has. No President controls the economy - it grows and contracts on its own, and the POTUS can only guide it up or down a small bit with positive talk.

It wasn't the Republicans. It was everyone.

"Republicans go sit in the corner suck you thumb and keep your mouth shut."

More Fascism from Democrats - meaning they want to control all debate, and force those with dissenting opinions to be silent. This is what the Neo-Cons did about the war. You are no better than the Conservatives, my Leftist friend.

Who is to blame:

Nixon: Makes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into partial government entities. The become GSE's. While their prospectus is EXPLICIT and states the securities are NOT backed by the US .Gov, they are 100% bailed out in 2008. Thus the higher rate of interest investors in FNM and FRE bond received, was paid for by the US Taxpayer. If the risk WAS .Gov backed, then the interest rate should have been what Treasury Bond Rates were. It wasn't and we are paying the difference.

Carter: Creates the CRA - Community Redevelopment Act. Begins the process of making it policy to encourage (force) banks to lend to 'minorities' and other pet groups of Liberals.

Reagan: Begins deficit spending and appoints Alan Greenspan.

Alan Greenspan: After the 1987 crash he loosens monetary policy, drops interest rates. This begins the bad precedent of lowering rates to prevent Recessions. With each preventive event, the final price to pay at the day of reckoning increases. Recessions are GOOD, people. We need them to purge the bad debt. Prevent that bad debt from defaulting, and the next time will be worse.

G.H.W. Bush: Gulf War I. Savings & Loan Meltdown. More debt to finance.

Greenspan: Lowers rates to shorten recession. Prevention #2.

Clinton: Doubled the exemption for home tax deduction from $250k to $500k. Spurred the housing bubble. Looked the other way during the Internet Bubble and the loose accounting standards and options trickery.

FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board): Began to make policy in cahoots with bankers during Clinton/Internet Bubble Years. Only gets worse from 2000-2009.

Greenspan: Lowers interest rates to prevent the 1999-2000 Dot-Bomb Recession. This is prevention #3.

Osama Bin Laden: Forces the US to engage in an expensive unwinnable war that drags on. Very Post-Modern and 21st C.

Greenspan: Lowers interest rates to prevent the 2001-2003 post 9-11 Recession. He keeps rates too low for too long. This is prevention #4.

Paulson Appeals to Congress: While head of Goldman Sachs, to lower leverage ratio requirements. Every firm that did, has blown up.

Bush: Spends trillions on the wars in the M.E., deficit spending, lowers taxes, prevents inquiry into housing fraud, deficit goes BOOM!

Bush: Appoints Bernanke.

Bernanke: Lowers interest rates to prevent a Real Estate recession. This is prevention #5. Could have regulated Enron, FNM, FRE, Derivatives market, all the mark-to-market and accounting tricks like Level 2 & 3, 23a letters, leverage exceptions, efc. He does not.

Paulson: Loots the taxpayer for $750B.

Congress: Lets Him.

Pauslon: Immediately changes his mind once he gets the money, gives it to his banker buddies who save it or use it to buy distressed assets at fire-sale prices.

Bernanke: More Fed Reserve programs totalling 2.3T balance sheet and growing.

Congress: Doesn't stop him.

American Taxpayer: Votes in almost all the Congressmen who voted for the Bailouts. No accountability.

American Taxpayer: Votes for Obama in a convulsion of national penance to vote in a Black Man.

Obama: Trillions more in debt. He won't force honesty and transparency.

It was a Good Run...

2009-03-21T19:26:00.000-07:00

Arizona Revenues Down -30.8% Year over Year

2009-03-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

I find it absolutely fascinating, and a sign of our Doom, that no one, not a PERSON, has mentioned that they/we need to curtail spending to get expenses in line with revenues.

It is as though they are intellectually incapable of grasping the concept.

Article here.
Data here.

State preparing to borrow money for first time in history
51 comments by Mary Jo Pitzl - Mar. 19, 2009 10:08 AM
The Arizona Republic

.

State officials have set the stage for Arizona to borrow money for the first
time in its modern history.

"We literally have no other way to raise cash," state Treasurer Dean Martin told
members of the state Loan Commission this morning.

The commission voted 3-0 to set the maximum interest rate the state would pay on
short-term loans that Martin estimates would range from $104 million to $184
million. The rate would float until the actual borrowing is done - most likely
in mid-April - but would be below 2.25 percent, the commission decided.

Gov. Jan Brewer, who sits on the commission by virtue of her post as governor,
called it "alarming" that state has to borrow in order to pay its bills.

"Needless to say, this is not the right way to run government," she said.

Brewer is trying to convince lawmakers that they need to either enact a
temporary tax increase, or refer a tax question to the ballot, to help the state
balance its budget over the next few years.

The short-term loans that Martin says are needed would add up to $79,000 to the
state's current-year deficit. The state has been grappling with deficits in its
last two budgets, and faces a $2.8 billion deficit for next year.

Martin likened the issuance of the treasurer warrant notes to overdraft
protection on the state's checkbook.

This is the second time this year that Martin has sounded the alarm on the state's
cash flow dipping into the red. Two months ago, he convened the loan commission
to start the borrowing process, only to produce fireworks when he and then-Gov.
Janet Napolitano clashed over how imminent the need was.

Ultimately, there was no borrowing. Martin said the state's fiscal condition has
deteriorated since then.

"This is worse than what we looked at in January," he said. "Things are eroding."

The cuts lawmakers made to close the state's $1.6 billion deficit in late
January helped for a while, Martin said, but "revenues fell off the cliff in the
last three weeks."

Although he anticipates only one round of short-term borrowing this year, Martin
said to expect more to come as the state enters fiscal 2010, where the state is
anticipating its revenues to fall nearly 30 percent short of its spending
obligations.

January General Fund revenue collections
were $662.5 million, or (21.9)% below January
2008. This level of collections was $(81.8)
million below the January revised budget
forecast.

The large January decrease of (21.9)% is
especially significant given the low 2008 base.
January 2008 collections were (14.4)% below
January 2007, giving us a 2-year decline of
(36.6)%.

• January individual income tax collections
were down (30.8)% compared to January
2008 and were $(57.7) million below the
forecast. January’s withholding tax
collection decrease of (14.7)% was the
largest decline since 1983.