International Forecaster Weekly: End of Year In Review 2013

Crush The Street and Viral News Network End of Year report for 2013 for the markets, currency, the fed, jobs, and the economy.

CNBC’S SANTELLI GETS INTO KNOCK-DOWN, DRAG-OUT SHOUTING MATCH OVER JOBS REPORT

Rick Santelli, the man widely regarded as the founding father of the Tea Party movement, got into an incredibly intense shouting match Tuesday morning with CNBC reporter Steve Liesman over recent comments regarding possible election-year manipulation of the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report.

Things started poorly when CNBC host Joe Kernen interrupted an already irritated Liesman so that Santelli could weigh in on the issue. Santelli did indeed weigh in, arguing that the economy has not improved and that he predicted last month pre-election BLS data would show sizable decreases in unemployment and that it would be under eight percent.

The Dangers of the Federal Reserve

The Federal Reserve and its debasement of the U.S. Dollar

by Nicholas Pardini

Usually when one thinks of the Federal Reserve Board, they believe that the Fed stabilizes the value of our currency and the economy. However, the truth is actually the opposite. Since its inception in 1913, the Fed has nearly erased all of the value of the US dollar, created vicious boom and bust cycles that kill the economy while unfairly redistributing the wealth, and transformed the United States of America from the world’ s creditor to the world’s largest debtor and a nation based on debt.

The most damage that the Fed has done to the American economy is the complete debasing of the United States dollar. Since the Fed was instituted in 1913, the dollar has lost ninety-seven percent of its value. Before the Federal Reserve was instituted the consumer price index remained fairly stable for nearly the first one hundred years of America’s history. However, once the Fed came around, they irresponsibly increased the supply of money to artificially boost the economy; and by doing this the dollar has lost its value and high inflation occurs. In fact the dollars recent decline can easily be explained by the Fed’s continual lowering of interest rates and increase of money supply in an inflationary period at a faster rate than the rest of the world.
In order to pay for the government’s outrageous deficit spending, the federal reserve prints more money to make for these debts. As a result the added money lowers the value of the existing dollars in circulation. Overall, the Federal Reserve has been the primary cause of inflation since its inception.

The Federal Reserve plays a great impact on the current cycle of boom and bust cycles and the economic instability that has occurred since 1913. In a capitalistic society, ups and downs in an economy are a given. However, the Federal Reserve by artificially altering money supply creates malinvestment to create artificial bubbles such as the Roaring 20’s, the dot-com boom in the 1990’s, and the 2002-2005 housing boom. The consequences of these bad investments are recession and/or depression once people realize the lack of foundation within the booming sector in which they are investing. Along with the devaluation of currency, the boom bust cycle of the Federal Reserve has hurt Americans (especially the middle class) through poor investments and capital losses.

Recently, the Federal Reserve has kept rates at a record low of 0.25% and has monetized government debt through two rounds of quantitative easing. Even before QE1 or QE2, Ben Bernanke had doubled the money supply in 2008 and these additions compound on this. Ben Bernanke seems to be short sighted about rising inflation and the monetary flaws that the Fed instituted to lead to our current recession. Instead he thinks that increasing the money supply will help the economy even though that is what is causing the decline of the dollar’s value internationally and inflation. What can be done to reverse the damage of the dollar and restore sound money to America?

The solution to our monetary problems is disbanding the Federal Reserve and replacing it with the gold standard. Until 1971, the value of the dollar was backed up with a set amount of gold for each note. Once Nixon removed the gold standard inflation became rampant and the dollar has retained less than one fifth of his value since then. The fiat currency originally was based on treasury bonds, but with the subprime crisis, the Fed added or toxic mortgage debt to the equation. Basically our money is more worthless than zero, it has negative value. What needs to be done is to switch back to the gold standard through competing currencies.

Individuals and businesses would be able to choose which money that they for transactions and savings. With the stability of a gold based currency, it would gain favor and ultimately replace the Federal Reserve note. Investors can protect themselves from the Fed by buying precious metals such as gold and silver or investing in emerging market stocks and western companies with a multinational presence. Sound money holds off effectively against inflation and has consistent economic stability and the gold standard provides that while the Fed’s tinkering takes this away.

Bernanke Gold is not real Money

CONGRESS: Please Become AMERICAN Again!!!

Obama coal crackdown sends message to industry |

A move by the Environmental Protection Agency to revoke the long-standing permits for a mammoth coal mine in West Virginia sends a strong signal that President Obama plans to implement key parts of his agenda even though newly empowered Republicans can block his plans in Congress.
In the aftermath of the November elections, many political pundits predicted that the once-unchecked Obama legislative machine would turn it’s energies to federal rulemaking as a way to circumvent Republicans on Capitol Hill. And the EPA’s decision last week suggests that those forecasts were spot-on.
Much to the consternation of the West Virginia delegation in Congress, the coal industry, and the working people of the Mountain State, the agency took the unprecedented step of revoking a mining permit that it had issued four years ago to Arch Coal’s Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County, West Virginia


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/01/17/obama-coal-crackdown-sends-message-to-industry/#ixzz1BP8OjHDO

14 Eye Opening Statistics Which Reveal Just How Dramatically The U.S. Economy Has Collapsed Since 2007

Most Americans have become so accustomed to the "new normal" of continual economic decline that they don't even remember how good things were just a few short years ago.  Back in 2007, unemployment was very low, good jobs were much easier to get, far fewer Americans were living in poverty or enrolled in welfare programs and government finances were in much better shape.  Of course most of this prosperity was fueled by massive amounts of debt, but at least times were better.  Unfortunately, things have really deteriorated over the last several years.  Since 2007, unemployment has skyrocketed, foreclosures have set new all-time records, personal bankruptcies have soared and U.S. government debt has gotten completely and totally out of control.  Poll after poll has shown that Americans are now far less optimistic about the future than they were in 2007.  It is almost as if the past few years have literally sucked the hope out of millions upon millions of Americans.
Sadly, our economic situation is continually getting worse.  Every month the United States loses more factories.  Every month the United States loses more jobs.  Every month the collective wealth of U.S. citizens continues to decline.  Every month the federal government goes into even more debt.  Every month state and local governments go into even more debt.
Unfortunately, things are going to get even worse in the years ahead.  Right now we look back on 2005, 2006 and 2007 as "good times", but in a few years we will look back on 2010 and 2011 as "good times".
We are in the midst of a long-term economic decline, and the very bad economic choices that we have been making as a nation for decades are now starting to really catch up with us.
So as horrible as you may think that things are now, just keep in mind that things are going to continue to deteriorate in the years ahead.
But for the moment, let us remember how far we have fallen over the past few years.  The following are 14 eye opening statistics which reveal just how dramatically the U.S. economy has collapsed since 2007....
#1 In November 2007, the official U.S. unemployment rate was just 4.7 percent.  Today, the official U.S. unemployment rate is 9.4 percent.
#2 In November 2007, 18.8% of unemployed Americans had been out of work for 27 weeks or longer.  Today that percentage is up to 41.9%.
#3 As 2007 began, there were just over 1 million Americans that had been unemployed for half a year or longer.  Today, there are over 6 million Americans that have been unemployed for half a year or longer.
#4 Nearly 10 million Americans now receive unemployment insurance, which is almost four times as many as were receiving it back in 2007.
#5 More than half of the U.S. labor force (55 percent) has “suffered a spell of unemployment, a cut in pay, a reduction in hours or have become involuntary part-time workers” since the "recession" began in December 2007.
#6 According to one analysis, the United States has lost a total of approximately 10.5 million jobs since 2007.
#7 As 2007 began, only 26 million Americans were on food stamps.  Today, an all-time record of 43.2 million Americans are enrolled in the food stamp program.
#8 In 2007, the U.S. government held a total of $725 billion in mortgage debt.  As of the middle of 2010, the U.S. government held a total of $5.148 trillion in mortgage debt.
#9 In the year prior to the "official" beginning of the most recent recession in 2007, the IRS filed just 684,000 tax liens against U.S. taxpayers.  During 2010, the IRS filed over a million tax liens against U.S. taxpayers.
#10 From the year 2000 through the year 2007, there were 27 bank failures in the United States.  From 2008 through 2010, there were 314 bank failures in the United States.
#11 According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the number of U.S. families with children living in homeless shelters increased from 131,000 to 170,000 between 2007 and 2009.
#12 In 2007, one poll found that 43 percent of Americans were living "paycheck to paycheck".  Sadly, according to a survey released very close to the end of 2010, approximately 55 percent of all Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck.
#13 In 2007, the "official" federal budget deficit was just 161 billion dollars.  In 2010, the "official" federal budget deficit was approximately 1.3 trillion dollars.
#14 As 2007 began, the U.S. national debt was just under 8.7 trillion dollars.  Today, the U.S. national debt has just surpassed 14 trillion dollars and it continues to soar into the stratosphere.
So is there any hope that we can turn all of this around?
Unfortunately, the massive amount of debt that we have piled up as a society over the last several decades has made that impossible.
If you add up all forms of debt (government debt, business debt, individual debt), it comes to approximately 360 percent of GDP.  It is the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world.
If the federal government and our state governments stop borrowing and spending so much money, our economy would collapse.  But if they keep borrowing and spending so much money they will continually make the eventual economic collapse even worse.
We are in the terminal stages of the most horrific debt spiral the world has ever seen, and when the debt spiral gets stopped the house of cards is going to finally come down for good.
So enjoy these times while you still have them.  Yes, today is not nearly as prosperous as 2007 was, but today is most definitely a whole lot better than 2015 or 2020 is going to be.
Sadly, we could have avoided this financial disaster completely if only we had listened more carefully to those that founded this nation.  Once upon a time, Thomas Jefferson said the following....

I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its Constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing.