"Canadian billionaire businessman Ned Goodman predicts the end of the U.S. Dollar as the world's reserve currency. He predicts the transition out of the U.S. Dollar will become, '...quite ugly.' He delivered the lecture at Cambridge House's Toronto Resource Investment Conference 2013 on Thursday, September 12, 2013." Continue reading →
"France’s state auditor urged the government Tuesday to redouble efforts to limit spending rather than increases taxes… He said 'the spiraling welfare debt was particularly abnormal and particularly dangerous.' During his first year in power, President François Hollande relied on large tax increases to plug holes in public finances, including social programs such as pensions, unemployment benefits and health care. But economic stagnation in 2012, coupled with a mild recession at the start of 2013, has waylaid the plan, while both companies and households are crying foul over what some have called 'a tax overdose.'" Continue reading →
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/09/this-is-what-happens-when-you-have-so.html
"Using the lower, safer growth rate of 3.22%, the unfunded liability in Pennsylvania’s two pension plans grows to a combined $156 billion. This different form of measuring liabilities produces some truly scary results. In five states, State Budget Solutions calculates pension liabilities represent more than 40% of the entire state economy. In two states — Ohio and Mississippi — the pension costs are equal to more than half the state’s gross production. On a per-capita basis, it’s equally worrisome. There are five states where the unfunded pension liability would represent a per capita cost of more than $20,000, with Alaska leading the way, at more than $32,000 per person." Continue reading →
"We don’t just have an economic bankruptcy, but we also have a moral and ethical bankruptcy taking place on top of the threat of war, and the fact that most governments are taking away freedoms and personal initiatives by making them people dependent on state handouts. We also have the very dangerous situation where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Since 2009, the wealthiest 7% have seen their wealth increase by 28%, while the other 93% have seen their wealth decline by 4%. If you take the wealthiest 300 in the world, they have more wealth than the poorest 3 billion. This is very dangerous for a world which that will have more and more people going hungry." Continue reading →
"The Department of Agriculture goes to a lot of trouble getting Congress to tax Americans. This is necessary so that the USDA can buy food from farmers at above-market prices. This reduces the amount of affordable food available to the poor. The USDA gives it away to state agencies. These agencies then give it away to charitable groups. They in turn give food to the hungry. One non-profit outfit in Florida has given away free food for 31 years. But not any longer. It turns out that this group — Christian — mentions Jesus to the poor people it ministers to. It took 31 years for some low-level government bureaucrat to put two and two together. 'What’s this? They talk about Jesus? Well, that’s got to stop.'" Continue reading →
"For details, see this video by a Canadian physician who moved to the United States." Continue reading →
"A Texas man who was struggling with episodes of sudden and unexplained drunkenness was found to have alcohol-producing microbes in his gut, which were busily making beer. Health care workers were baffled. Initially they assumed that the man was being dishonest and was drinking on the sly. They checked the patient in to a hospital room for 24 hours and made absolutely sure that he had not smuggled in any alcohol. They fed him foods rich in carbohydrates. Sure enough, his blood alcohol content began to spike on its own. The man, who was an avid home brewer, had an abundance of brewer’s yeast in his gut, making his intestines act as their own small brewery." Continue reading →
"A deaf Oregon man has filed a lawsuit claiming that police violated his civil rights when they laughed at his request for a sign language interpreter during his arrest. According to the site, Updike used sign language to ask officers what he’d done to result in his arrest, and he also tried to speak the words, 'What did I do?' The suit claims officers pushed him roughly into a patrol car and laughed at him. An interpreter was assigned when Updike appeared again two days after his arrest. He was released from jail, and all charges were dropped against Updike eight days after his arrest." Continue reading →
"Chinese state television on Sunday broadcast a startling video of a famous blogger in handcuffs, renouncing his Web posts and saying how dangerous the Internet would be if left uncontrolled by the government. The 10-minute news report featuring Charles Xue — a Chinese American businessman and one of China’s most popular bloggers — was the latest step in what appears to be asystematic campaign to intimidate online opinion leaders against speaking too freely or critically of the government." Continue reading →