
Can a Farm State Feed Itself?
by: Brooke Jarvis
Illinois, home to 76,000 farms and more than 950 food manufacturing companies, is a solidly agricultural state in the heart of America’s bread basket. Fully 80 percent of it is …

Davos Meets In China
Business and government officials met in China to continue discussions on centralizing control and management of the global economy.
Continue reading Summer Meeting 2009

Catherine Goes to North Dakota
If you are in Fargo, North Dakota this weekend, I hope you will join us! This is a free event to promote sound money, free markets, and to encourage a return to fiscal responsibility among people …

US and China Plan to 'Take Over' Cleantech Market
By Jonathan Watts
Under the plan, money would be used to expand China’s solar, wind, carbon capture and smart-grid markets. Photograph: Graham Turner
A joint US-China plan to “take over the world”…

Surviving the Depression & Reviving Local Economies!
Franklin Sanders has a speaking engagement in Columbia, South Carolina, September 21, 2009.
Franklin is a long-time member of the League of the South Board of Directors, a delegate to the Southern …

Love a local business? Buy a share
By Helaine Olen
John Halko was halfway through renovating an expanded space for Comfort, his mostly organic eatery in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., when the credit crisis hit. His source of funding — a …

The S&P 500 PE Ratio Peaks at Record Highs
View Chart of the Day: S&P500 P/E Ratio
The Big Picture (21 Aug 09)

America: Arms Dealer to The Stars!
By Mark Morford
So far ahead in weapons sales to the world are we, it’s not even a contest. We own the game. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, while overall weapons sales…

Poverty and Income
By Avi Feller and Chad Stone
Two-thirds of the nation’s total income gains from 2002 to 2007 flowed to the top 1 percent of U.S. households, and that top 1 percent held a larger share of income i…

Consumer Credit Shrinks
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Continue reading Chart of The Day: Consumer Credit Collapse

The Amazing US Manufacturing Worker
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Continue reading The Amazing US Manufacturing Worker

UN Calls for New Global Currency
By Jonathan Tirone
The dollar’s role in international trade should be reduced by establishing a new currency to protect emerging markets from the “confidence game” of financial speculation, t…

Game Over: Barrick Dilutes by $3 Billion to Buy Back Gold Hedges
By Cameron French
Barrick Gold (ABX.TO) will issue $3 billion in stock to eliminate all of its fixed-price gold hedges and a portion of its floating hedges, taking a $5.6 billion hit to third-quart…

China to Issue Renminbi Bonds to Offshore Investors
By Robert Cookson in Hong Kong
China will issue sovereign bonds denominated in its own currency to offshore investors for the first time this month – a crucial step towards making the renminbi a …

Swiss Topple U.S. as Most Competitive Economy
By Sven Egenter
Switzerland knocked the United States off the position as the world’s most competitive economy as the crash of the U.S. banking system left it more exposed to some long-standing wea…

China Derivative Deals in Doubt
By James T. Areddy
China’s government on Monday offered public encouragement to state-owned companies challenging foreign banks over huge losses from derivative contracts, a move that bankers say h…

IBM: Planning on an Epidemic
By Don Nicoloff
It would appear IBM in 2006 was planning for a global epidemic sometime before 2011.
Continue reading IBM: Planning on an Epidemic

Google Loses Another Ruling
The US Court of Appeals in the Second Circuit has ruled against Google. Google was offering competitors trademarked names to advertisers as a search term so the advertisers’ ads appeared when searc…

China, Bernanke, and the Price of Gold
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
China has issued what amounts to the “Beijing Put” on gold. You can make a lot of money, but you really can’t lose.
I happened to see quite a bit of Cheng Siwei at …

Goldman Sachs Wives Hate To Wait
[How did we miss this one from last month?]
Goldman Sachs boss Lloyd Blankfein has warned his employees to avoid high-profile spending, as The Post reported — but his wife evidently didn’t get the…

Food Stamp Numbers Climb
by Roberta Rampton and Chuck Abbott
More than 35 million Americans received food stamps in June, up 22 percent from June 2008 and a new record as the country continued to grapple with the worst rec…

Hatoyama's Currency Views
The head of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) Yukio Hatoyama, who will be named Prime Minister on Sep. 14 in the wake of his party having swept the Parliamentary elections on Aug. 30, is a followe…

Dr. Hulda Clark
Dr. Hulda Clark passed away peacefully in her sleep September 3, 2009.
A website is being setup in memory of Dr. Clark where people may leave their thoughts and experiences to share with all.
Further…

Start Dancing
“For there to be a world at all, every indigenous, original, natural thing must start singing its song, dancing its dance, moving and breathing, each according to its own nature. When any of these …

Mars Landscapes
What would you see if you could fly over Mars in a plane and look out the window?
It must be something like the thousands of curious, intriguing and spectacular images taken by the High Resolution …

China Starts Journey to New Reserve Currency
China began the long journey to a new international reserve currency with a single step – agreeing to buy $50 billion in notes from the International Monetary Fund.
Another proverb, less distinguis…

The Southern National Covenant
Our forefathers’ worst nightmare has now come upon us. They created a free government, limited in its powers and a servant to the people. But today the United States has become an empire, fast decay…

Hong Kong Recalls Gold Reserves
By Chris Oliver
Hong Kong is pulling all its physical gold holdings from depositories in London, transferring them to a high-security depository newly built at the city’s airport, in a move that wo…

Investors Rush Into Gold ETFs
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Continue reading Chart of The Day: Investors Rush Into Gold ETFs

G-20 London Meeting
By Matt Falloon
Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 developed and developing economies meet in London this week to assess how far the world economy and banking system is recove…

"Farewell America"
Here is an update on last week’s blog post:
Oldest Swiss Bank Advises Clients to Pull Out of US Securities
Here is the full investment commentary from the bank:
Wegelin & Co. Investment Comme…

Something Brewing in Systemic Solvency Crisis?
By John Williams
Revived Crisis Brewing? A confluence of signals has aroused my gut instincts of an intensifying systemic liquidity crisis, and possible pending reaction by the Federal Reserve and/or…

SASAC Clarifies Statement on Derivatives Contracts
The report that the State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) would allow Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to default on derivative deals was misinterpreted, Reuters repor…


U.S. Debt Clock
View full US Debt Clock

Martial Law via Swine Flu
By Chelsea Schilling
Pandemic bill allows health authorities to enter homes, detain without warrant.
…the following states have implemented legal actions in response to the H1N1 virus:
Florida …

Bond Vigilantes Fret Over Japan
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Japans’s tax revenues have collapsed by 27pc over the last year, leaving it unclear how the incoming Democrats can pay for their blitz on welfare spending without floodin…

Beijing's Derivative Stance Rattles Banks
By Eadie Chen and Chen Aizhu
A report that Chinese state-owned companies will be allowed to walk away from loss-making commodity derivative trades provoked anger and dismay among investment bankers …

China Eyes Ban on Rare Metal Exports
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Beijing is drawing up plans to prohibit or restrict exports of rare earth metals that are produced only in China and play a vital role in cutting edge technology, from hybr…

Real Unemployment Rate = 16%
The real US unemployment rate is 16 percent if persons who have dropped out of the labor pool and those working less than they would like are counted, a Federal Reserve official said Wednesday.
“If…

What's Up in Pakistan?
Undercover armed Americans are swarming the Pakistani capital in the latest sign that the elected government has allowed Washington to dispatch what is believed to be a large number of American specia…

Washington Times Poll as of September 1st, 3pm ET
Are you planning to get vaccinated against the H1N1 virus (also known as swine flu) this fall?
Response Percent Votes
Yes 23% 495…

Japan – An Historic Shift in Power
By Linda Sieg
Japan’s next leader Yukio Hatoyama, fresh from a historic election win, faced the task on Monday of forming a government to tackle challenges such as reviving the economy and steering…

China May Terminate Derivative Contracts
Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) may unilaterally terminate derivative contracts with six foreign banks that provide over-the-counter commodity hedging services, a leading financial magazine s…

Cell Towers Harming Honey Bees
The electromagnetic waves emitted by mobile phone towers and cellphones can pose a threat to honey bees, a study published in India has concluded.
An experiment conducted in the southern state of…

Still a Widespread Recession in July
Here is a map of the three month change in the Philly Fed state coincident indicators. Forty six states are showing declining three month activity.
This is what a widespread recession looks like base…

Lowering Construction Costs
In thinking about economic reform, if you want to contemplate construction techniques outside of “the matrix,” read about the Coral Castle and Nan Madol.

Stock Market Concentration
by Lauren Schenkman
A recent analysis of the 2007 financial markets of 48 countries has revealed that the world’s finances are in the hands of just a few mutual funds, banks, and corporations. This…

Bill Would Give President Emergency Control of Internet
by Declan McCullagh
Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers f…

IMF Injects 283 Billion SDR to Boost World Economy
With much of the world still mired in recession, the IMF took action to bolster its members’ reserves through an allocation of SDRs, or Special Drawing Rights. The allocation, equivalent to 250 bi…

New Foreclosures Dwarf New Home Sales
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Continue reading Chart of The Day

Swedish Riksbank Introduces Negative Interest Rate
By Andrew Ward and David Oakley
For a world first, the announcement came with remarkably little fanfare.
But last month, the Swedish Riksbank entered uncharted territory when it became the world…

After Settlement, Legal Opinions Erased From Lexis and Westlaw
By Shannon P. Duffy
Ordinarily, the decision to settle a case while an appeal is pending means giving up the opportunity to set a legal precedent as well as forgoing the chance to win a reversal of a…

Health Care Reform
Here is my #1 proposal for health care reform – stop suppressing the knowledge and technology that supports health and prevents and cures disease.
If you are curious about what health care might lo…

From Susan Johann
This is a special flower called a Cereus. It blooms only once a year at night and by dawn the flower is gone, My friend David brought it to my house because he knew it would be opening and we wat…

Scientists Refuse Swine Flu Vaccine
Scientists who developed the Small Pox vaccine are refusing immunization inoculation against the Swine Flu due to major medical side effects. 1 in 3 UK nurses refuse the jab. . . . . .
Read One in …

Swine Flu: Manipulating the Data
by Michel Chossudovsky
“Over the course of the next few months, with the assistance of our partners in the private and public sector and at every level of government, we will move aggressively to pre…

US Bank Investments Grow
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Oldest Swiss Bank Advises Clients to Pull Out of US Securities
Swiss private bank Wegelin announced on Tuesday that it is to stop doing business in the United States.
The St Gallen-based bank, Switzerland’s oldest, said the decision had been taken in response to…


Placebos Are Getting More Effective
By Steve Silberman
Merck was in trouble. In 2002, the pharmaceutical giant was falling behind its rivals in sales. Even worse, patents on five blockbuster drugs were about to expire, which would al…

Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy (1932 – 2009)
(Reuters Pictures)
Senator Ted Kennedy died shortly before midnight Tuesday at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass., at age 77.
Continue reading Ted Kennedy Dies at Age 77

What's the Danger of Swine Flu Vaccinations?
by Dr. Anders Bruun Laursen
The average quantity of squalene injected into the US soldiers abroad and at home in the anthrax vaccine during and after the Gulf War was 34.2 micrograms per billion mi…

Goldman's Insider Tips Investigated
U.S. securities regulators are examining weekly meetings at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, where research analysts offer tips to traders and then to big clients, the Wall Street Journal reported on its we…

Argentina Follows Mexico and Decriminalizes
Argentina’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday it is unconstitutional to punish an adult for private use of marijuana as long as it doesn’t harm anyone else. The unanimous ruling makes Argentina the se…

Americans: A Courageous People
If someone else says to me that Americans are in a stupor and not doing anything, I will just spit.
Lots of Americans are doing things and have been doing things at great expense and risk. America is…

Bloomberg Wins Against the Fed
By Karen Gullo
The Federal Reserve must make public reports about recipients of emergency loans from U.S. taxpayers under programs created to address the financial crisis, a federal judge ruled.
C…

Congressman Paul on Swine Flu
“Non-event”
— Congressman Ron Paul’s (R-TX) description of Swine Flu outbreak

Prosecutor to Probe CIA Interrogations
By Carrie Johnson
In appointing a prosecutor to investigate alleged CIA interrogation abuses, including episodes that resulted in prisoner deaths, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Monday shoo…

Obama White House v. CIA; Panetta Threatened to Quit
By Matthew Cole,Richard Esposito and Brian Ross
A “profanity-laced screaming match” at the White House involving CIA Director Leon Panetta, and the expected release today of another damning int…


Sleuth Humor
“A little help from my friends.”
Ann, private investigator, on Paul Krugman’s new $1.7 million pad.
Read Paul Krugman Gets a New Place to Hang His Hat and Nobel

Extreme Sheepherding
Extreme Sheep Herding – With Lights!
YouTube

Pennsylvania: The New California
By Tami Luhby
In Pennsylvania, day care centers are closing. Food banks and libraries are cutting back. A school district is taking out a multi-million dollar loan.
Local governments and social se…

Hospital Futility Policy
Dear Catherine,
I enjoyed your appearance on Coast last night. It was a very insightful discussion as always. You will be shocked and saddened by the following, but I implore you to read on.
You t…

Bundesbank Gold
By Chris Powell
Germany’s central bank, the Bundesbank, today confirmed that much of its gold is held outside the country at “trading centers” where the bank conducts “its gold activities.”
The Bu…

Oldies But Goodies From 1998
It’s been three years since Sarah and Susan Banks had the revelation over coffee at their Aunt Mary’s restaurant, where Sarah had worked summers putting herself through college. They had returned to O…

Five Financial Stocks Dominating Market Volume
View larger image
By Tyler Durden
The fact that more than the entire float of AIG has traded daily on several occasions, should be a bright red light for the regulators to analyze whether this abno…

Millions Face Shrinking Social Security Payments
By Stephen Ohlemacher
By law, Social Security benefits cannot go down. Nevertheless, monthly payments would drop for millions of people in the Medicare prescription drug program because the premium…

China Reduces Holdings
By BBC News
China holds more US government debt than any other country and cut its holdings of US securities by more that 3% in June, said the BBC’s Chris Hogg.
Japan and the UK – second and third…

Time to Leave Massachusetts?
While New York is the capital of banking, one could argue that Boston is the capital of equity investment, being home to numerous mutual fund companies such as Fidelity and Putnam, and home as well of…

Planetary Oxygen Levels
By Dr. Mae Wen Ho
Within the past several years, however, scientists have found that oxygen (O2) in the atmosphere has been dropping, and at higher rates than just the amount that goes into the inc…

Vaccines More Deadly Than The Swine Flu
by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins
It is a messy combination of sequences from bird, human and swine flu virus lineages from North America and Eurasia. A senior virologist based in Canberra, A…

King Assasination – The Trial in 1999
King Assasination – The Trial in 1999 (Part 2-10)
Trial Transcript

What is Ramadan?
Ramadan starts today, Friday, the 21st of August, and will continue for 30 days until Saturday, the 19th of September.
Muslims are called upon to use this month to re-evaluate their lives in ligh…

Pension Plans’ Private-Equity Cash Depleted as Profits Shrink
By Jason Kelly and Jonathan Keehner
U.S. pension funds contributed to the record $1.2 trillion that private-equity firms raised this decade. Three of the biggest investors, state pensions in Californ…

Not a Popsicle Index Guy
Warren Bamford, the special agent in charge of the FBI in Boston, said Tuesday that he is baffled by opposition to a proposal to give some neighborhood police officers the semiautomatic weapons.
Cont…

Gov Access to Your $ Data
By Diana Furchtgott-Roth
Buried in the 1,017 pages of the House Democrats’ health-care bill is a little-noticed provision that for the first time could give the government access to the checking or…

Philadelphia's Doomsday Budget
Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley
Mayor Michael Nutter said the clock is counting down to the implementation of a devastating ‘doomsday budget’ in Philadelphia.
During a morning press conference…

The National Debt Road Trip
How do the current deficits compare with past administrations? And how did the national debt get so big anyway? This video tries to answer those questions by looking at the debt as a road trip …
Y…

Central Bank Symposium
Jackson Hole
Every year, the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank sponsors a meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The 2009 event starts tonight. For prior year topics, click here.
By …

Credit May Crunch Again
View Full Size Chart of The Day: Credit May Crunch Again Before Getting Back To Normal

New Micro-Loan
Having received another repayment, I just made my next loan at Kiva.org to an entrepreneur in Palestine starting a grocery store. Learn more about the syndicate I have joined, and how you or your So…

CalPERs: Something Does Not Add Up
By Ed Mendel
The CalPERS chief actuary says pension costs are “unsustainable,” and the giant public employee pension system plans to meet with stakeholders to discuss the issue.
So, are the critics …

JP Morgan is the Man in CA
By William Selway
JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to lend California $1.5 billion, a cash infusion that will allow the most-populous U.S. state to stop issuing IOUs to businesses, taxpayers and mun…

CalPERs: Fees to JP Morgan Chase in 2008
From CalPERs Schedule of Fees & Commissions paid to securities brokers in fiscal 2008.
JP Morgan Securities, Ltd. $944,000
JP Morgan Securities, Inc. $1,142,000
JP Morgan Securities (A…

Health Care Solutions
The “Impossible” Healthcare Solution: Go Back to Cash
Here are the costs of childbirth as of 1952 at one of the finest hospitals on the West Coast, The Santa Monica Hospital:
Having a baby cost $3…


Farmacology
by Meg White
I don’t like it when scientists feel the need to explain that they’re scared out of their wits, or use exclamation marks.
I also get a little nervous when they say stuff like, “We’re …
