
Lesta Frank’s New Classes in San Antonio
Workshop- Saturday June 23 and Sunday, June 24, 2012
Hours: Each day-10:00-4:00
Place: Lesta’s Studio, 135 Evans Ave.,San Antonio., 78209
Fee: One day $50, both days $85 plus supply fee $10 a day
L…


The Evolution of the Computing Value Chain
By Horace Dediu
[click on the image for a larger version
Continue reading the article . . .

Asia’s Millionaire Count Passes North America’s
Source: CNBC
The United States is still No. 1 when it comes to the number of millionaires in a single country, but global wealth is continuing its movement eastward.
Continue reading the article ….

Disney: Protecting IP or Compromising Personal Rights?
By a Solari Report Subscriber
[CAF Note: Yikes! Has this happened to you? If you are a subscriber, post your story on the blog or, if not, let us know at communicate@wordpressdevurl.com. Let us know …

Japan PM Noda Orders Nuclear Reactors Back Online
Source: BBC News
Japan has announced that it will restart two nuclear reactors – the first to go back online since all the country’s plants were closed following last year’s Fukushima crisis.
Rea…

First Day of Summer – The Summer Solstice
Summer begins in the Northern Hemisphere on June 20, 2012, at 7:09 P.M. (EDT). Here’s more about the first day of summer—the summer solstice—plus, facts, folklore, and some sensational summer …

Treaty Negotiated In Secret
By George Washington
Democracy Now, Breaking the Pledge Video
Continue reading the article . . .
Related reading:
Controversial Trade Pact Text Leaked(PDF)
PublicCitizen (13 June 12)
Trans-Paci…


Encroachment Upon Basic Freedoms
By Frank Morales
Back in 1992 the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff held a “Strategy Essay Competition.”
The winner was a National War College student paper entitled, “The Origins of the American…

Remote Controlled Mosquito-Sized Flying Spy Drone
Is this a mosquito…NO! This is an “INSECT SPY DRONE” already in production.
Insect Spy Drone
Wake Up Call (Facebook)
By Alexander Higgins
Wright – Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio — Two miles fro…

Japan to Pass Bill to Insure Iran Oil Imports
By Osamu Tsukimori
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s lower house is set to pass a bill on Friday to provide government guarantees on insurance for Iranian crude cargoes, making it the first of Iran’s…

HKEx Agrees to Buy LME in $2.2 billion Deal
By Chris Oliver
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing HK:388 -4.45% HKXCF +2.56% , operator of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, said Friday it has entered into a framework agreement to buy the London Metal …

Inflation: What It Really Costs
By Ron Bennett
For all the small business owners out there struggling to make it, here is simple calculation of the hidden tax paid due to inflation:
How much is the tax due to 4% inflation on a $1 …

$1,000 and a Click: Buying Stock the Crowdfunding Way
By Karen Weise
It’s been just two weeks since President Obama signed the JOBS Act into law, loosening requirements for companies looking to raise capital. The rules aren’t even written yet, an…

Dr. Jim MacKimmie: 1928 – 2012
By Anais Starr
My great good friend and doctor healer, Dr. Jim MacKimmie passed away on Monday evening, June 11. After the initial stab of a shock, jangling of heart strings, sleeping on it overnight…

Estate Planning About to Change
Could this be the golden age of estate planning? Some financial advisers believe it is — at least until the end of the year. That’s when key income tax breaks for transferring wealth are scheduled…

North Dakota Considers Eliminating Property Tax
BISMARCK, N.D. — Since Californians shrank their property taxes more than three decades ago by passing Proposition 13, people around the nation have echoed their dismay over such levies, putting f…

Chinese Offer £1.3Bn for Metal Exchange
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, which counts the Chinese government among it shareholders, is understood to have tabled a £1.3bn offer for the City’s last “open cry” market, and a d…

Robotic Explorers Set Out for the Moon
The first privately funded mission to the Moon will launch in 2015, pioneered by a legendary roboticist and his team of students. Pittsburgh’s Astrobotic Technology, a company founded by David Gump …

30,000 Secret Surveillance Orders Approved Each Year
30,000 secret surveillance orders approved each year
Nate Anderson (5 June 12)
If the government spies on you but brings no charges, you’ll never know.
A federal judge estimates that his fellow fede…

Public Comment on Inflation Measurement
Source: Shadowstats
This article replaces the earlier “Primer” on the Consumer Price Index
Consumer Price Index Has Been Reconfigured Since Early-1980s?So As to Understate Inflation versus C…

The Global Debt Clock
Source: Economist
Our interactive overview of government debt across the planet.
The clock is ticking. Every second, it seems, someone in the world takes on more debt. The idea of a debt clock for…

The Trap
The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom is a BBC documentary series by English filmmaker Adam Curtis, well known for other documentaries including The Century of the Self and The Power of Nigh…

John F. Kennedy’s Commencement Address at American University
Delivered June 10, 1963
“President Anderson, members of the faculty, board of trustees, distinguished guests, my old colleague, Senator Bob Byrd, who has earned his degree through many years of a…

What’s the Risk of Capital Flight in China?
By Humble Student of the Markets
I wrote before that the likely negative surprise was going to come from China and not Europe (see Focus on China, not Europe). Yes, I am worried about China, but my c…

There Are Three Kinds of People
“There are three kinds of people in the world: those who are asleep, those who are stirring, and those who are awake.
“If you try to wake up the sleeping person he will just mumble and go back to sle…

Senators, Prime Ministers – and Texas Teachers’ CIO – Attend Bilderberg Conference
By Paula Vasan, aiCIO
Alongside senators, prime ministers, and banking kingpins, one (perhaps) unusual attendee is currently at this year’s Bilderberg meetings: Texas Teacher Retirement System (TRS…

Rockefellers and Rothschilds Unite
Source:News.com.au
The Financial Times (FT) reported yesterday that Lord Jacob Rothschild’s listed investment trust, RIT Capital Partners, agreed to take a 37 per cent stake in Rockefeller Financia…

Flame Cyber Attack: Israel Behind Largest Cyber Spy Weapon Ever?
By Lee Ferran, Alexander Marquardt and Colleen Curry
Flame, also known as sKyWIper, is a veritable “toolkit” of cyber spying programs that is capable of remotely taking screenshots while the comput…

Europe’s Debtors Must Pawn Their Gold for Eurobond Redemption
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The German scheme — known as the European Redemption Pact — offers a form of “Eurobonds Lite” that can be squared with the German constitution and breaks the political …

Bilderberg Meet in the US
By Elisheva Wiriaatmadja
The 2012 Bilderberg Group meeting will take place from May 31st to June 3rd at the Westfields Marriott Washington Dulles hotel in Chantilly, Virginia.
(RT.com) Every time …

U.S. Expelling Syrian Diplomats
By The CNN Wire Staff
The United States joins Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Britain, Canada, Australia in expelling Syrian diplomats Tuesday in a coordinated move …
Continue reading the arti…

Nearly Half of Recent Vets Filing For Disability
Source: Associated Press
America’s newest veterans are filing for disability benefits at a historic rate, claiming to be the most medically and mentally troubled generation of former troops the nat…

Why Politicians Don’t Care That Much About Reelection
By Matt Stoller
“There was a kind of inflection point during the five-year period between 1997 and 2003 — the late Clinton and/or early Bush administration — when all the rules just went away…

Report from the Tamera Water Symposium
[Note from CAF: Special thanks to Leila Dregger and the team of journalists at Tamera who documented our discussions.]
The Second InternatIonal Water Symposium in Tamera, Portugal • April 27Th …

OWS Movement
By A Solari Subscriber
City of Las Cruces is cutting off utilities for the non payment of speed camera tickets.
[http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/37/3774.asp] In Phx 75k people refused to pay speed c…

Crowdfunding via Customers is The New Startup Capital
By Wil Schroter, Fundable
When the JOBS Act was signed in April, the startup community gave itself a collective high five. Crowdfunding would enable startups to reach out to the whole world to get …

Behind the Scenes
From Jim Sinclair from Harry Schulz [and said to be from Bob Chapman]
On May 14, Russia’s Prime Minister Medvedev delivered a speech at an international law conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, …

The U.S. Housing Crisis: Where Are Home Loans Underwater?
Source: Zillow
With U.S. home values falling by nearly 25% since peak in 2007, many homeowners are now underwater in their mortgages, meaning they owe more than their home is worth. Search our in…

Drugs, Oil, and War
By Peter Dale Scott
Preface
I delivered the following remarks at an anti-NATO conference held in Moscow on May 15, 2012. I was the only North American speaker at an all-day conference, having been…

Japan is Working Around EU/US Sanctions
By Jiji
The government is considering legislation that will allow it to effectively reinsure tankers carrying crude oil from Iran to Japan, sources said.
The legislation, if enacted, will allow Ja…

Quinta da Faianca -Almocageme Sintra Portugal
While I was in Portugal, one of my Portuguese friends took me by his brother’s home for an early dinner. We watched the sunset across the Atlantic Ocean. It was truly beautiful.
It turns out his brot…

The Natural Gas Massacre Gets Bloodier
By testosteronepit
Wolf Richter
The plight of natural gas driller Chesapeake Energy could almost make you feel sorry for the board of directors and CEO Aubrey McClendon. He lost his chairmanship af…

Is the Earth a Sentient Living Organism?
Source: The Daily Galaxy via University of Maryland
New Study May Provide the Proof
Is the Earth a giant living organism as the Gaia hypothesis predicts? A new discovery made at the University of …

On Assignment
On Assignment: A Guide to Reporting in Dangerous Situations
In the early months of 2002, Wall Street Journalreporter Daniel Pearl was abducted and executed by his captors while pursuing a story abo…

Eurozone Debt Web: Who Owes What to Whom?
Source: Bank for International Settlements, IMF, World Bank, UN Population Division
The circle below shows the gross external, or foreign, debt of some of the main players in the eurozone as well as …

My Conversation With Kickstarter Co-founder Perry Chen
By Om Malik
We are on the cusp of a big economic shift. I believe that the industrial era is coming to an end and Kickstarter just might be the most visible representation of that. When I look at K…

TED Talk on Inequality
Nick Hanauer
YouTube
(17 May 12)
Related reading:
Nick Hanauer
From Wikipedia
About Nick
Nick Hanauer.com

The Organic Watergate: Alarming Report
By Common Dreams staff
Today, the Cornucopia Institute released a report titled The Organic Watergate revealing widespread corruption in the USDA’s organic food monitoring panel — the National Org…

JPMorgan vs Gold vs the Dow
[click on the image for a larger version]
Source: Yahoo Finance
May 21, 2012
Continue reading the article . . .

Japanese Pension Fund Switches To Gold For First Time Ever
By Tyler Durden
China is now on its way to becoming the biggest source of gold demand, surpassing India, but more importantly as of hours ago, in a truly historic move, “Okayama Metal & Machine…

FDIC Sues on Mortgage-Backed Securities Sold to Banks
By Bob Van Voris
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. sued a group of banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) , Citigroup Inc. (C) , Bank of America Securities and Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) in two…

Panic Like It’s March 2009
By Chris Puplava
The decline in bullish optimism towards stocks is usually associated with more severe declines than what we typically see and is likely a result of the chronic market volatility. For…

Community Banks Say Goodbye to SEC Registration
By Danielle Douglas
John Marshall Bank in Reston has de-registered its shares with the Securities and Exchange Commission, taking advantage of a provision in the JOBS Act permitting small banks to…

Unrepentant: Kevin Annett and Canada’s (Native Peoples) Genocide
YouTube
(17 April 11)
Related reading:
Canada’s Genocide (Documentary)
YouTube (7 Oct 11)

MacTribe iPhone App Spotlight
Solari & The Money Changer
Silver and Gold Payment Calculator App
Price: Free
Solution: iPhone Apps That Give Us New Ideas
The creator of the Solari Silver and Gold Payment Calculator ap…

Rich Tech Folk Building Their Island Utopia Off The Coast of San Francisco
By Andrew Dalton
Venture capitalist and Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel is inching closer towards realizing his dream of creating a government-free floating island utopia for tech startups off the co…

Generations of Family Owned and Operated Bank
“About 32 leading men of the community,” according to the original minute book, assembled December 24, 1883, in Malvern Hall for the purpose of “starting a National Bank of Malvern.”
The Willits Fa…

Following in Footsteps – Bank of Malvern
Andrew Bartholomew, son of Lydia Willits Bartholomew grew up in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He received his undergraduate degree from Lynchburg College, in Economics, in 2005, followed by a M.A. i…

Facebook Prices at Top of Range in Landmark IPO
By Olivia Oran and Alistair Barr
New York/San Francisco (Reuters) – Facebook Inc priced its initial public offering at the top of its target range to raise more than $16 billion, as strong demand, …

Italian Court Rules MMR Vaccine Did Trigger Autism
Source: NYR Natural News
An Italian court has ruled there is a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
In what may be a ground-breaking decision, the Italian Court of Rimini has ruled that causa…

FDA-Approved Drugs Kill a Million Americans Per Decade!
By Jon Rappoport
The day of the Smoking Gun has arrived.
The discovery of a page, on the FDA’s own website, proves the FDA is fully aware that:
the drugs it certifies as safe have been killing …

Sir James Goldsmith in 1993 on Why the Euro Will Not Work
[CAF Note: Reposting this for the second time given ongoing events in Greece and the Eurozone]
You are an opponent of the project for single currency. Why?
The effects of a single currency go far be…

DOJ Opens Inquiry Into JPMorgan Trading Loss
Source: Reuters
Washington (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department has opened an inquiry into JPMorgan’s multibillion-dollar trading loss, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing a pers…

Must Read: “Another Perspective”
By Paul Brodsky and Lee Quaintance of QBAMCO
Two weeks ago, before Jamie Dimon’s thoughtful diversion, Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway instructed viewers of CNBC that “civilized people don…

United States Circumvented Laws To Help Japan Accumulate Tons of Plutonium – Thanks to D.
By Joseph Trento
The United States deliberately allowed Japan access to the United States’ most secret nuclear weapons facilities while it transferred tens of billions of dollars worth of Americ…

JP Morgan “Double Dipping Scheme”
By Teri Buhl
Fallout from JP Morgan trading losses, which led to rater Fitch downgrading their debt yesterday, aren’t the only financial worries the banking behemoth is facing. Nestled in that s…

JPMorgan Weighing In onTrading Loss
Source: Yahoo
[click on the image for a larger version]
Continue reading the article . . .
Related reading:
JPMorgan Said to Weigh Bonus Clawbacks After Loss
Bloomberg (14 May 12)
Senate’s Jo…

Prepare For Volatility
By Cam Hui
Last week, I wrote to expect a short-term rally, which was a tactical trading call (see The “Merde” rally?) but I wasn’t convinced that any rally would be the start of an intermediate t…

Putin Flexes Muscle in Shunning U.S.-hosted G8 Talks
Editing by Alissa de Carbonnel and Mark Heinrich
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Of all the signals and symbols that shape Russian foreign policy, this one seemed particularly blunt: Vladimir Putin, in one of …

The Commodity Megatrend
Source: Seeking Alpha
“The most valuable commodity I know of is information.” (Gordon Gecko in “Wall Street” by Oliver Stone)
The Periodic Table of Commodity Returns
[click on the image for a large…

Keyline Cowboy – Soil Regeneration Techniques
Email sent to Catherine May 8, 2012 from a subscriber:
Catherine,
Franklin Sanders had CC’d me your email address in regards to any soil questions you might have. My name is Brian G. Bankston (but y…

The Eurozone Decoupling. . .
Source: Pragmatic Capitalism
One of the more controversial ideas I wrote about last year was the decoupling of Europe and the USA
The equity market went vertical this morning on the back of the US…

Go Away American Millionaires
By Sanat Vallikappen
That’s what some of the world’s largest wealth-management firms are saying ahead of Washington’s implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act , known as Fatca…

Solari Report Subscribers
By Catherine Austin Fitts
[Excerpt from our Annual Wrap Up in January 2012]
This year was my first opportunity to meet a lot of Solari Report subscribers in person. I was astonished as I le…

Federal Reserve Board Approves Bank Holding Applications for Three Chinese Banks
The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday announced its approval of the application by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited, China Investment Corporation, and Central Huijin Investment Ltd., a…

Tamera Named Buckminster Fuller Challenge Finalist
Tamera, Portugal, May 7th, 2012: – Tamera Water Retention Landscape has been named a 2012 Finalist in the Buckminster Fuller Challenge, the prestigious annual design science competition named “Soc…

Arthur’s Inspirational Transformation!
Volkswagen People’s car project.
YouTube
Related reading:
Is VW’s Next People’s Car a Hover Car?
Fox News (4 May 12)

Japan Nuclear Power Free After Shutdown of Last Reactor
By Tsuyoshi Inajima
Japan has none of its 50 reactors operating as of today after its sole operating nuclear unit was halted for planned maintenance last week.
Hokkaido Electric Power Co. shut the …

Krugman Finally Wins the Argument
By John Rubino
Today’s world can be summarized in two sentences:
Unless continuously fed with new credit, the global financial system will implode. And when confronted with this possibility, go…

Buffett on Gold
“When we took over berkshire, berkshire was selling at $15 a share and gold was selling at $20 an ounce. And gold is now $1600 and berkshire is $120,000. but you take take a broader example. if yo…

Why Publishers Don’t Like Apps
The future of media on mobile devices isn’t with applications but with the Web.
By Jason Pontin
By the time Apple released the iPad in April of 2010, just four months after Steve Jobs first announ…

On French and Greece Elections
This is not the end folks, this is only the beginning of a change that is sweeping across the World – these are stunning defeats of the status quo by people who are finally as mad as Hell – and th…

A New Chapter of Pension Plan Woes
By Eleanor Laise
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was originally published in the April 2012 issue of Kiplinger’s Retirement Report.
Traditional pension plans are supposed to offer a predictable plot …

Fred Wilson: 10 Ways to Be Your Own Boss
[arve url=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/12643907?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=fdbb29″ width=”325″ height=”242″ frameborder=”0″ webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScree…

The High Price of Tax Breaks
Source: The Economist
Like most sins, tax breaks are easier to condemn than to resist. Politicians regularly decry the inefficiency and complexity that tax breaks introduce to the overall tax system,…

Invergordon Mutiny
British Atlantic Fleet on patrol in the late 1920s
From Wikipedia
The Invergordon Mutiny was an industrial action by around 1,000 sailors in the British Atlantic Fleet, that took place on 15–16 S…

G8 (Maryland) and G20 (California) Meetings Coming Up
With this goal in mind, Mexico has established the following priorities:
Economic stabilization and structural reforms as foundations for growth and employment.
[CAF Translation: Conce…

The Super Moon of May 2012
YouTube
(9 March 12)
Related reading:
Supermoon
From Wikipedia

Griefwalker
“Not success. Not growth. Not happiness. The cradle of your love of life is death.”
-Stephen Jenkinson
YouTube
Continue reading the article . . .

Robot to Help Autistic Children Learn
By Stephanie Baum
A company has developed a robot to help autistic children learn social reference skills and is raising $1.25 million to produce more in a beta production run.
The Popchilla…

ZKB Boss Says Any U.S. Indictment Would Not Fell It
By Katharina Bart
An indictment of Zuercher Kantonalbank by U.S. officials in an ongoing tax probe would not mean the state-backed bank’s demise, Chief Executive Martin Scholl said in an interview …

The Fate of the Eurozone Hangs on Sunday’s French Elections
By Martin Hutchinson
It now looks as though Nicolas Sarkozy’s days are numbered. In the balance lies the fate of the Eurozone itself.
It appears Socialist Francois Hollande will win the French el…

World War 3.0
TWO FUTURES? Privacy, piracy, security, sovereignty—the divisions on these issues reflect an even deeper split between those who want tight control and those who want unfettered freedom.
By Micha…


The Food Police State
Joel Salatin talks to Lew about Big Agra authoritarianism, and how to emancipate yourself.
Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm website
Continue reading the article . . .

While in Portugal….
By Catherine Austin Fitts
While I was in Portugal, I received the following e-mail from my assistant in Hickory Valley:
“The local energy authority stopped by regarding Smart meter, said that he wa…

Coal’s Future Is Rocky at Best
By Matthew Philips
[click on the image for a larger version]
Continue reading the article . . .

Ford Pension Offers Lump Sums
By Fred Meier
Ford announced today that it would offer a lump-sum payment to its 90,000 salaried retirees as well as U.S. salaried former employees due pensions to get them to voluntarily give up a…