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Showing posts from 2010

State Lawlessness on the Rampage

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS The year 2011 will bring Americans a larger and more intrusive police state, more unemployment and home foreclosures, no economic recovery, more disregard by the US government of US law, international law, the Constitution, and truth, more suspicion and distrust from allies, more hostility from the rest of the world, and new heights of media sycophancy. 2011 is shaping up as a brutal year for American democracy. The Republican Party has degenerated into a party of Brownshirts, and voter frustrations with the worsening economic crisis and military occupations gone awry are likely to bring Republicans to power in 2012. With them would come their doctrines of executive primacy over Congress, the judiciary, law, and the Constitution and America’s rightful hegemony over the world. If not already obvious, 2010 has made clear that the US government does not care a whit for the opinions of citizens. The TSA is unequivocal that it will reach no accommodation with Am

Rapidly declining inventories setting up massive price inflation?

Above: The price increases for both silver and gold in terms of Marks during hyperinflation in Weimar Germany Source: Here

Was Jesus Christ, Libertarian?

“Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he bent down and wrote on the ground. And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She replied, "No one, sir." Then Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, (and) from now on do not sin a

NSC Study Shows You are More Likely to Killed By a Cop Than a Terrorist

See this video as an example After 9/11, the fear of another attack on U.S. soil cleanly supplanted the fear of having one`s penis chopped off by a vengeful lover in the pantheon of irrational American fears. While we`re constantly being told that another attack is imminent and that radical Islamic fundamentalists are two steps away from establishing a caliphate in Branson, Missouri, just how close are they? How do the odds of dying in a terrorist attack stack up against the odds of dying in other unfortunate situations? The following ratios were compiled using data from 2004 National Safety Council Estimates, a report based on data from The National Center for Health Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau. In addition, 2003 mortality data from the Center for Disease Control was used. -- You are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack -- You are 12,571 times more likely to die from cancer than from a terrorist attack -- You are 11,00

Awaiting the Storm by Fred Reed

Flags. These are always a bad sign. Hardly a politician appears on television who doesn’t stand in front of an American flag, sometimes three American flags. A venomous nationalism now poisons the air, and grows. We are off and rolling. The trappings of fascism spread. General David Petraeus, commander of the Eastern Front, poses with the President in the White House in combat fatigues. The country is now the Homeland, reminiscent of the Nazi Fatherland and the Soviet Motherland. We hear of American Exceptionalism, the ritual self-idolization beloved of pathological nationalism. Blood and Soil. The American Dream. Ubermenschen. All we need is a short Austrian. We may get one. The times ripen for a man on a horse. (Or perhaps a woman: Twitler of Alaska looms.) An ignorant population, unread, unfamiliar with the outside world, focuses its anxieties on troubling dark things lurking abroad, the brown hordes from the south, the rising Chinese, inexplicable Moslems who want to kill all C

Opinion: You Might Be Committing a Federal Crime

(Dec. 17) -- Here's one proposition not up for partisan debate: America is woefully overcriminalized, and the criminal law is woefully overfederalized. Today there are nearly 4,500 federal criminal laws on the books, and most of them have been added in just the last few decades. A groundbreaking, nonpartisan study conducted this year by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Heritage Foundation revealed that many of these laws lack even the most basic protection: an adequate criminal intent requirement. That means Americans can be convicted and thrown in prison for doing something -- actually, one of thousands of seemingly innocuous things -- they had no idea was against the law. This overcriminalization has real-world consequences. Throwing in prison people who didn't intend to break the law, or who violated laws that shouldn't be crimes in the first place, imposes an unnecessary burden on taxpayers to pay for their senseless incarceration. This

Ron Paul: America Is The Biggest Counterfeit Machine In The History Of The World

Ron Paul told Morning Joe this morning that he is "heartened" to see that the Debt Commission embraced his and Barney Frank's call to at least look into spending cuts in the military but even that does not totally reassure him because you "need to change the policy, you can't quit one weapons system and think that's a solution if you still want to be policemen of the world." Said Joe Scarborough: "Republicans who claim to be small deficit hawks want to stay in Afghanistan for another decade, want to continue everyone of these weapons systems. We can't balance this budget. We can't sustain ourselves fiscally if we keep spending money on these two wars." Meanwhile, Paul thinks you could take $10 billion from building embassies and bases and but $5 billion of it into medical or unemployment benefits "to tide us over" and "put $5 billion against the deficit." Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/ron-paul-on-

Obama White House pressured Spain to drop Bush torture prosecution

By Daniel Tencer Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 -- 10:42 pm Obama White House pressured Spain to drop Bush torture prosecution, leaked cable shows. The Obama administration went to the mat to defend its predecessors from a torture prosecution in Spain last year, a leaked State Department cable shows. The cable, released by WikiLeaks this week, shows that senior US diplomats teamed with Republican lawmakers -- including a former Republican Party chairman -- to put pressure on Spanish officials to drop a criminal investigation into the Bush administration's use of "enhanced interrogation techniques." In the spring of 2009, Spanish Judge Balthasar Garzon launched an inquiry into six Bush officials linked to the torture policy. They were then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; Cheney adviser David Addington; Pentagon lawyer William Haynes; Pentagon official Douglas Feith; and Jay Bybee and John Yoo from the Office of Legal Counsel. Read More: Here

Local TSA Agent Speaks Out On Pat-Downs

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Passengers may be unhappy over long lines and enhanced security at the airports, but it’s a feeling shared by many at TSA. “There’s a lot more tension both by officers, fellow officers, and passengers,” one Pittsburgh TSA officer told KDKA’s Jon Delano in an exclusive interview. TSA officers don’t like the new aggressive pat-downs of passengers either. “I truly feel that it is morally and ethically wrong to do it,” the agent noted. “This does not make flying safer. It’s just taking away American citizens rights.” And all the horror stories at other airports only make things worse. “Everybody shudders when they hear that because they know that is not what we’re supposed to be doing,” the agent said. Read More: Here

DHS & TSA: making a list, checking it twice

By Douglas J. Hagmann, Director 23 November 2010: Following the publication of my article titled “Gate Rape of America,” I was contacted by a source within the DHS who is troubled by the terminology and content of an internal memo reportedly issued yesterday at the hand of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. Indeed, both the terminology and content contained in the document are troubling. The dissemination of the document itself is restricted by virtue of its classification, which prohibits any manner of public release. While the document cannot be posted or published, the more salient points are revealed here. The memo, which actually takes the form of an administrative directive, appears to be the product of undated but recent high level meetings between Napolitano, John Pistole, head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA),and one or more of Obama’s national security advisors. This document officially addresses those who are opposed to, or engaged in the disruption of th

TSA Gropers Prone To Predatory Criminal Behavior

Deviants, perverts and rapists are attracted to airport pat down jobs Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Wednesday, November 24, 2010 News that a TSA employee abducted a woman before sexually assaulting her is just the latest example of how TSA workers are prone to criminal and predatory behavior particularly targeting women and children, emphasizing once again why they are attracted to jobs that allow them to sexually molest and ogle vulnerable members of society. “A TSA employee based at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport tried to kill himself after allegedly abducting a woman, sexually assaulting her then giving her a suicide note to deliver,” reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 49-year-old Randall Scott King kidnapped the woman after she had accompanied him from the airport. Whether or not King abused his power as a TSA officer to make the woman accompany him is still being investigated by police. The story arrives on the same day as another inci

The time is now to push back on Porno-scanners!

There is a quickly growing wave of opposition to the Constitutionally illegal "porno scanners", the time is now to voice opposition in every and any way possible. Email, phone calls, letters to the airlines, letters to hotels, theme parks, etc. If we don't overturn this now, it will get worse. Lawmakers in New Jersey Attempt to Ban Full Body Scanners TSA Screener Accosting 3 Year Old Child at Security Checkpoint Amid airport anger, GOP takes aim at screening Coming Soon to an Airport Near You: Prison-style strip searches? One Hundred Naked Citizens: One Hundred Leaked Body Scans Judge Andrew Napolitano talks about Airport Naked Body Scanners http://wewontfly.com/ http://flyersrights.org http://www.stopdigitalstripsearches.org/ http://optoutday.com/

Greenspan: High deficits could spark bond crisis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States must move to rein in its massive budget deficits or it faces the risk of a bond market crisis, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Sunday. "We've got to resolve this issue before it gets forced upon us," Greenspan said of the ballooning U.S. debt levels. He spoke as a panel, chaired by former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles and former Senator Alan Simpson, is due to deliver a report on debt and deficits by December 1. A draft report made public last week offered a series of politically tough tax and spending choices that would seek to reduce the debt by $4 trillion by 2020. The suggestions received a lukewarm reception from some politicians and outright condemnation by others, including House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who pronounced the ideas "simply unacceptable." Read more: Here

Paying To Be Raped

Every single day millions of us are being subjected to the shameful processes of being searched, screened and viewed naked, patted, groped, fondled, poked and stroked by badge-wearing strangers – police under a different name. Every single day. Millions of us, Americans. Being violated. Being degraded. You know exactly what I am talking about. I am taking about me, you, your mother, her brother, his brother’s wife and toddler son, their grandmothers. I am talking about the systematic degradation of our people. I am talking about being raped of our dignity, privacy, and decency. I am talking about a daily systematic rape we actually pay to be subjected to. I am talking about severe violations we elect people to bring upon us. Yes, I am talking about traveling, TSA police, and being reduced to naked and helpless subjects of government police practices. Considering its short tenure, the motherland police force, aka Department of Homeland Security, has had a one-of-a-kind success. In les

Stossel: Freer Is Better

The 2010 Index of Economic Freedom lowers the ranking of the United States to eighth out of 179 nations -- behind Canada! A year ago, it ranked sixth, ahead of Canada. Don't say it's Barack Obama's fault. Half the data used in the index is from George W. Bush's final six months in office. This is a bipartisan problem. For the past 16 years, the index has ranked the world's countries on the basis of their economic freedom -- or lack thereof. Ten criteria are used: freedoms related to business, trade, fiscal matters, monetary matters, investment, finance, labor, government spending, property rights and freedom from corruption. The top 10 countries are: Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Switzerland, Canada, the United States, Denmark and Chile. The bottom 10: Republic of Congo, Solomon Islands, Turkmenistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Venezuela, Burma, Eritrea, Cuba, Zimbabwe and North Korea. The index demonstrates what

$5,000 Gold Bandwagon Now Includes These 65 Analysts – Got Gold?

The small group of gold enthusiasts who started out few in numbers a few years back has made a parabolic move over the past year or so much like their projections for the future price of gold. They now number an unbelievable 108 who have stated, with sound reasons in their opinions, why gold could quite possibly go to a parabolic top of at least $2,500 an ounce – to even as much as an unimaginable $15,000 – before the bubble finally pops! In fact, the majority (65) maintain that $5,000 or more for gold is likely. In this article I identify the economists, academics, analysts and financial writers who hold such a lofty opinion of the prospects for gold and provide the URLs of their articles so you can ascertain for yourself their logic for such parabolic moves in the years to come. ( Please note: This is a one-of-a-kind article which no doubt will get a great deal of attention and be posted on a large number of other financial sites and blogs. This is encouraged but to

Angle: Republicans Have ‘Lost Their Standards’ and ‘Their Principles’

In private, Sharron Angle may be as bold and brash as she is in public. An audio recording has emerged of the Nevada GOP Senate candidate criticizing the Republican establishment during a meeting with third-part rival Scott Ashjian and his allies. “The Republicans have lost their standards, they’ve lost their principles,” Angle said in a thirty-eight minute audio recording obtained by the Las Vegas Sun . “Really that’s why the machine in the Republican Party is fighting against me… They have never really gone along with lower taxes and less government.” According to HuffPo, Angle goes on to make a biblical comparison : “You gotta get my armor off and let me pick up this sling,” she said drawing a comparison between her fight and that of David and Goliath. “That’s exactly where I am right now, is trying to get them to leave me alone for long enough so I can get my sling and go after this guy. There are just these issues.” Read more: Here

The Fascists just won't stop the dehumanizing.........globally

Janet Napolitano Urges "Next Stage" of Airport Screening Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will urge 90 nations to heighten their aviation security measures today to include screening devices that could prevent terrorist from bringing plastic- or powder-based explosives onto the plane, according to USA Today. Citing the inability of metal detectors to recognize unconventional explosives, Napolitano will emphasize the need to use advanced innovations such as body scanners to step up security processes at a Montreal meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). "We need to move to the next stage of screening," Napolitano told USA Today, adding that terrorists "have kind of figured out the magnetometer business." ICAO Secretary General Raymond Benjamin told the newspaper that his organization - a United Nations arm responsible for determining international aviation standards - considered the matter "of the utmost sig

Lunatics to the Left, Lunatics to the Right, and Not a Drop to Drink

God. Oh God. Oh God, God, God. It is getting worse. Maybe I’ll take cyanide. I find this inspiriting headline polluting my inbox like rotting road-kill. It's from Broward County, Florida: “Child Still Expelled for Toy Gun – a Year Later Parents want their child back in school. School board says no way.” See? Florida collectively is out of its tiny little mind. What if this crepuscular pathology spreads to other countries? Or planets? “School board officials said the rules are quite clear and that the toy gun constituted a weapon.” Me, I figure the school-board officials constitute a pack of priggish low-Board simians who ought to be swinging in trees instead of trying to run a school. But then, I’m a curmudgeon. Think about it. Kid – he’s eight – shows up with toy gun after watching 12,000 hours of shoot’em-ups on the lobotomy box, Luke Skywalker blasting funny-looking milkmen like a pretty little mollycoddle turned psychopath. Kid sees war coverage with heroic GIs

UK Proposes All Paychecks Go to the State First

The UK's tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all employers send employee paychecks to the government, after which the government would deduct what it deems as the appropriate tax and pay the employees by bank transfer. Big Ben & London Eye Sharon Lorimer The proposal by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) stresses the need for employers to provide real-time information to the government so that it can monitor all payments and make a better assessment of whether the correct tax is being paid. Currently employers withhold tax and pay the government, providing information at the end of the year, a system know as Pay as You Earn (PAYE). There is no option for those employees to refuse withholding and individually file a tax return at the end of the year. If the real-time information plan works, it further proposes that employers hand over employee salaries to the government first. "The next step could be to use (real-time) information as t

Communism for Conservatives

Three of the ten planks of the Communist Manifesto (1848) are still universally accepted. 2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. 5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. 10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc. The ten planks were supposed to be the means of ushering in the classless society of Communism. The next sentence after plank #10 revealed the utopianism of Marxism. When, in the course of development, class distinctions have disappeared, and all production has been concentrated in the

Republican Tea Party Organization Reports Death Threats

Corporate media generated and whipped up hysteria and hatred directed at the Tea Party movement has resulted in death threats, according to GOP Majority Leader Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks. Adam Brandon told U.S.News & World Report that Armey and his organization received dozens threatening and harassing phone calls and emails. FreedomWorks is the establishment’s answer to the grassroots Tea Party movement. Republicans Jack Kemp and Bill Bennett also work for the organization. It is funded in part by the notorious neocon foundation run by Richard Mellon Scaife . During his career as a member of the House of Representatives, Dick Armey voted as a mainline Republican. Following his vote for the Iraq invasion, the Texas Republican admitted he had been “bullshitted” by then vice president Dick Cheney. Recordings played for U.S.News & World Report’s “Washington Whispers” Paul Bedard contain direct threats. “You guys better watch it,” one caller threatens. “Now, we are g

Ron Paul: Dollar Would Be Stronger Without the Fed

End the Fed

Are Corporations Sitting on Piles of Cash?

The Wall Street Journal claims U.S. Firms Build Up Record Cash Piles U.S. companies are holding more cash in the bank than at any point on record, underscoring persistent worries about financial markets and about the sustainability of the economic recovery. The Federal Reserve reported Thursday that nonfinancial companies had socked away $1.84 trillion in cash and other liquid assets as of the end of March, up 26% from a year earlier and the largest-ever increase in records going back to 1952. Cash made up about 7% of all company assets, including factories and financial investments, the highest level since 1963. "Stockholders don't want them to keep sitting on cash at a zero return," said Paul Kasriel, an economist at Northern Trust. "They're going to use it," either to increase hiring and investment or to make payouts to shareholders in the form of dividends or share buybacks, he said. Investors Punish Companies Spending Cas

The Mosque Debate

By Silentboom In one predicable move, Obama has exposed many so called "freedom advocates" as fools who lack the ability to think beyond their emotions.  The same people who have been demanding a restoration of America's founding principals were so easily led into this obvious trap of allowing Obama to turn the tables and become the defender of property rights and champion of religious freedom.  Not surprising is that so many neoconservative "tea party patriots" (Many of the "Palin faction") have snapped to attention upon hearing a mention of anything "Arab", however what is surprising is that even some libertarian minded thinkers followed their lead.  At this point, the more rational should be considering the facts that when someone owns property, it should be their prerogative to build whatever they choose irrespective of the feelings of their neighbors and other blathering simpletons who choose to involve themselves in matters that do n

IP Makes Us More Like the Animals

On this thread, someone said that “If we fail to recognize intellectual property, we permanently relegate ourselves to the prehuman branch of the animal kingdom – capable of dealing only with the concrete with no capacity for abstraction.” I was just thinking about this. Animals are largely incapable of using non-scarce goods like information, knowledge, images, and text to build civilization and make progress — these are tendencies that requiring learning from each other, cumulating information instead of keeping it bound up in one being’s experience and restricting its impact to one generation. This is why trout today are pretty much like trout in the ancient world, and why one generation of cats is pretty much like every other generation of cats. Animals don’t really discover new methods of doing things, and then put them on display to be copied by others of their species. I can teach my dog how to sit but he is not likely to go out and teach other dogs how to sit.

Freedom and Illusion

When I was a kid long, long ago, before time began, or anyone had thought of why time ought to begin, or what it might be good for, I lived in rural King George County, Virginia. The county bordered on the Potomac River and was mostly woods. Dahlgren Naval Proving Ground, on which my family lived, sloped down to Machodoc Creek, perhaps three-quarters of a mile wide. Things were looser then. When I wanted to go shooting, I put my rifle, a nice .22 Marlin with a ten-power Weaver, on my shoulder and walked out the main gate. At the country store outside the gate I’d buy a couple of boxes of long rifles, no questions asked, and away my co-conspirator Rusty and I went to some field or swamp to murder beer cans. Today if a kid of fifteen tried it, six squad cars and a SWAT team (in all

Reagan insider: 'GOP destroyed U.S. economy'

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- "How my G.O.P. destroyed the U.S. economy." Yes, that is exactly what David Stockman, President Ronald Reagan's director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed piece, "Four Deformations of the Apocalypse." Get it? Not "destroying." The GOP has already "destroyed" the U.S. economy, setting up an "American Apocalypse." In the wake of Friday's disappointing jobs report, Neal Lipschutz and Phil Izzo discuss new predictions that it could be many years before the nation's unemployment rate reaches pre-recession levels. Yes, Stockman is equally damning of the Democrats' Keynesian policies. But what this indictment by a party insider -- someone so close to the development of the Reaganomics ideology -- says about America, helps all of us better understand how America's toxic partisan-politics "holy war" is destro

Wikileaks, Who's Hiding What and Why

Two ways exist of looking at Wikileaks, the site that publicizes secret military documents and videos. The first is held self-interestedly by the Pentagon and by Fox News, the voice of an angry lower-middle class without too much education. These believe that Wikileakers are traitors, haters of America, who give aid and comfort to the enemy and endanger the lives of Our Boys. Implicit in the Foxian view is a vague idea that the leaks give away important—well, stuff. You know, maybe frequencies of something or other, or locations of ambushes or, well, things. Important things. The Taliban will use this information to kill American soldiers. The notion is vague, as are those who hold it, but emotionally potent. The other view, held usually by people who have some experience of Washington, is that the Pentagon is worried not about the divulging of tactical secrets, but about public relations. Wikileaks doesn’t endanger soldiers, insists this way of looking at things, but the war itsel

Emerging Markets Shed the Skin of US Consumers

08/05/10 Ouzilly, France – Want to know how to make money in this economy? You do it by selling things to markets that are growing. Exporting, in other words. China’s growing. India’s growing. Brazil is growing. Dozens of other countries are growing. Sales in the US aren’t likely to go up. But sales to China? Sales to Brazil? That’s where the money is. And here’s something interesting – these growth economies are now largely ‘de-coupled’ from the US. They don’t need us anymore. We’ve done our part. Thanks to clever management by the feds, Americans went deeply in debt so that these emerging market economies could grow. They put up factories. We bought their output. They logged a sale. We added a debt. And now, we can’t continue. We’ve taken on all the debt we can handle. They’ve got their factories, their capital and their skilled labor. We’ve got debts, debts and more debts. Read more : Here

Feds admit storing checkpoint body scan images

For the last few years, federal agencies have defended body scanning by insisting that all images will be discarded as soon as they're viewed. The Transportation Security Administration claimed last summer, for instance, that "scanned images cannot be stored or recorded." Now it turns out that some police agencies are storing the controversial images after all. The U.S. Marshals Service admitted this week that it had surreptitiously saved tens of thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of a single Florida courthouse. This follows an earlier disclosure (PDF) by the TSA that it requires all airport body scanners it purchases to be able to store and transmit images for "testing, training, and evaluation purposes." The agency says, however, that those capabilities are not normally activated when the devices are installed at airports. Body scanners penetrate clothing to provide a highly detailed image so accurate th

Obama's father served in World War II?

Barack Hussein Obama Sr.(Obama's father), Born 4/4/36, Died 11/24/82 at the age of 46. He was 5 years old when WW II started and less than 9.5 years old when it ended. Lolo Soetoro (Obama's step father), Born 1935, Died 3/2/87 at the age of 52. He was 6 years old when WW 2 started and 10 years old when it ended.

40 Bizarre Statistics That Reveal The Horrifying Truth About The Collapse Of The U.S. Economy

Most Americans still appear to be operating under the delusion that the "recession" will soon pass and that things will get back to "normal" very soon. Unfortunately, that is not anywhere close to the truth. What we are now witnessing are the early stages of the complete and total breakdown of the U.S. economic system. The U.S. government, state governments, local governments, businesses and American consumers have collectively piled up debt that is equivalent to approximately 360 percent of GDP. At no point during the Great Depression (or at any other time during our history) did we ever come close to such a figure. We have piled up the biggest mountain of debt that the world has ever seen, and now that gigantic debt bubble is beginning to pop. As this house of cards comes crashing down, the economic pain is going to become almost unimaginable. Already, things are really, really, really bad out there. Unemployment is at shockingly high levels. Foreclosure

Shadow Government Statistics

A great site which tries to put some reality into the government spun numbers being fed to the masses. If you have the guts to pursue the truth, check out http://www.shadowstats.com/ Alternate Inflation The CPI chart on the home page reflects our estimate of inflation for today as if it were calculated the same way it was in 1990. The CPI on the Alternate Data Series tab here reflects the CPI as if it were calculated using the methodologies in place in 1980. In general terms, methodological shifts in government reporting have depressed reported inflation, moving the concept of the CPI away from being a measure of the cost of living needed to maintain a constant standard of living. http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts

The Scariest Unemployment Graph I've Seen Yet

The median duration of unemployment is higher today than any time in the last 50 years. That's an understatement. It is more than twice as high today than any time in the last 50 years. OK, you're saying, but what does this mean? Does it mean we must increase the duration of unemployment benefits to protect this new class of unemployed, or does it mean we need to stop subsidizing joblessness? Does it mean we need to expand federal retraining programs, or does it mean federal retraining programs aren't working? Does it mean we need more stimulus, more state aid, more infrastructure projects, more public works ... or does it mean it's time to stop everything, stand back and let business be business? You're going to find smart people make a case for all six of the above public policy directions. (I tend to side with the first of each coupling.) It's hard to know for sure how to design public policy for historically unique crises precisely because they are histo

The Monumental Incompetence of the TSA

According to GAO, TSA inspectors spend 33% of their time inspecting, 8% on incidents, 5% investigating, 5% on “outreach,” and 49% of their time on “other.” Other? 10% of useable TSA equipment (worth millions) in transit is stored for 2 years or more due to poor logistical processes. During the first 3 months of 2007, the TSA Logistics Center received eight explosive detection systems units at a cost of about $7 million. As of January 2009, all eight explosive detection systems units remained in storage at the Logistics Center. In December of 2009 TSA leaked a full copy of its 2008 S.O.P., screening protocol, and other security standards onto the internet. In June 2007, investigators testing the TSA checkpoint screening process were able to smuggle prohibited items past security despite passing through secondary screening and pat-downs. Read more: Here

WSJ: Liberals, progressives.....economic morons.

Who is better informed about the policy choices facing the country—liberals, conservatives or libertarians? According to a Zogby International survey that I write about in the May issue of Econ Journal Watch, the answer is unequivocal: The left flunks Econ 101. Zogby researcher Zeljka Buturovic and I considered the 4,835 respondents' (all American adults) answers to eight survey questions about basic economics. We also asked the respondents about their political leanings: progressive/very liberal; liberal; moderate; conservative; very conservative; and libertarian. Rather than focusing on whether respondents answered a question correctly, we instead looked at whether they answered incorrectly. A response was counted as incorrect only if it was flatly unenlightened. Consider one of the economic propositions in the December 2008 poll: "Restrictions on housing development make housing less affordable." People were asked if they: 1) strongly agree; 2) somewhat agree; 3)

China Says Yuan Revaluation Won't Solve U.S. Trade, Unemployment Problems

U.S. economic woes can’t be solved by a revaluation of the yuan and American leaders will “help no one” by politicizing the issue, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang said. The comments come as U.S. lawmakers urge President Barack Obama to keep pressuring China even after the June 19 announcement that it was lifting a two-year policy of pegging its currency to the U.S. dollar. U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke reiterated this week the yuan is undervalued. “The appreciation of the yuan cannot bring balanced trade,” Qin told reporters in Beijing. Yuan appreciation “cannot help to solve U.S. problems of unemployment, overconsumption and low savings rate.” Democrats and Republicans in Congress said yesterday they will press legislation to let companies seek tariffs on imports to compensate for advantages a weak currency gives Chinese producers. Lawmakers including Senator Charles Schumer said during the Senate Finance Committee hearing yesterday the government has not done e

In Defense of Rand Paul

For those students who may not keep themselves informed about Senate primary races in other states, please excuse the brevity of the following summary: Dr. Rand Paul, son of Congressman Ron Paul, recently mopped the floor with his primary opponent, neoconservative and Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson. Having personally volunteered on behalf of Dr. Paul’s campaign, I couldn’t help but be concerned when I noticed that weasel-turned-CNN commentator Paul Begala could hardly contain his excitement over Paul’s primary win. I knew they had something, and, as it turns out, Begala is now using Dr. Paul’s name to help him fundraise. The very next day, it just so happened that a video interview was leaked, which showed Rand Paul criticizing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That same night, in what can only be considered a public relations gaffe, Dr. Paul appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show to defend himself. What happened is what everyone in his campaign should have expected—she spent t

25 Questions To Ask Anyone Who Is Delusional Enough To Believe That This Economic Recovery Is Real

If you listen to the mainstream media long enough, you just might be tempted to believe that the United States has emerged from the recession and is now in the middle of a full-fledged economic recovery. In fact, according to Obama administration officials, the great American economic machine has roared back to life, stronger and more vibrant than ever before. But is that really the case? Of course not. You would have to be delusional to believe that. What did happen was that all of the stimulus packages and government spending and new debt that Obama and the U.S. Congress pumped into the economy bought us a little bit of time. But they have also made our long-term economic problems far worse. The reality is that the U.S. cannot keep supporting an economy on an ocean of red ink forever. At some point the charade is going to come crashing down. And GDP is not a really good measure of the economic health of a nation. For example, if you would have looked at the growth of GDP i

Nanny State goes global

6:00 am May 24, 2010, by Bob Barr “Nanny State” laws are popping up with increasing frequency as big-government advocates continue to be elected to offices from the city council to the White House. What many Americans may not realize is the extent to which such invasive and pervasive government actions are spreading around the world, creating a “Nanny World.” As usual, California, with its many ultra-liberal communities, is leading the way here in America. Santa Clara County recently voted to outlaw the sale of McDonald’s “Happy Meal” toys and a host of other novelties (including coupons from which a patron might download a song) provided by restaurants as a bonus for customers who purchase certain drinks or food items. As bizarre as is this most recent ban, if some of that county’s residents have their way, it will be followed by many more. One resident of Sacramento, for example, reportedly voiced support for the recently-passed measure because even McDonald’s “190-calorie s