Middle Class Dismissed

What Don’t We Understand at This Point About Economics and Unemployment?

"The employment-population ratio has barely changed in three years, showing that 58.6% of U.S. adults over age 16 had a job as of April. Forget the unemployment rate. The employment rate – the percentage of adult Americans who hold a job – has barely budged in the past three years. It's hovering near its lowest level in three decades, and it's unlikely to improve when the Labor Department releases its May jobs report on Friday." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhat Don’t We Understand at This Point About Economics and Unemployment?

New York ‘soccer mom’ accused of $3 million marijuana operation

"Andrea Sanderlin was described by friends and neighbours in the upmarket town of Scarsdale as a 'soccer mom' who drove a Mercedes SUV and competed in horse riding competitions. But the federal drug enforcement agency alleges that the 45-year-old was in charge of a 'sophisticated operation to grow and process marijuana', according to the criminal complaint. Investigators linked Sanderlin, who has two daughters aged 3 and 13, to a warehouse that was using 'an unusually high amount of electricity'. In a separate raid on her Scarsdale home authorities found books on how to grow marijuana and how to launder money, according to the DEA." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNew York ‘soccer mom’ accused of $3 million marijuana operation

Stockholm’s unrest stoked by unemployment

"Although the social democratic government did succeed in creating more affordable housing by the mid-seventies, little else went to plan. Middle-class Swedes moved out, and when the country in the past decade welcomed hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia, among others, the apartments they were allocated were often in areas like Husby. Housing segregation is often named as one of the reasons it takes the average immigrant to Sweden years, not months, to find work. Even among the second generation, many say they rarely make it to a job interview." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingStockholm’s unrest stoked by unemployment

The Real Reason Governments Are Killing Financial Privacy

"With the deficit in 2012 for the US federal government at $1.1 trillion, the expected $900 million from FATCA is not even a drop in the bucket. Even in the unlikely event that the US will moderately reduce its deficit in the future, the revenue from FATCA will remain a pittance in comparison. Why would the US government go through all the enormous trouble of implementing FATCA if it's going to bring in such a meager amount of money? If it's not money, it appears the primary motivation here is control. The new 'global standard' is a path that will put governments around the world one step closer to being able to track and control every penny you earn and every penny you spend." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Real Reason Governments Are Killing Financial Privacy

Bill Bonner: Fed’s policies are bringing poverty

"The Panic of 1907, before all these 'protections' were put in place, was over in 3 months...followed by full employment. The Crash of 1921 took longer - about 18 months - but when it was over anyone who wanted a job could find one. But now, we've been in the Great Correction for 5 years. Millions of people have given up; they're no longer even looking for work. And suicide has replaced car accidents as the number one threat to working-age Americans. You want to reduce the rate of suicide? Eliminate the barriers to saving, capital formation and employment." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: Fed’s policies are bringing poverty

Bill Bonner: Statistics show the fall of the US economy

"Good news is bad news. Bad news is good news. Up is down and backwards is forwards. Nothing is what it seems...or what it ought to be. If the economy really were doing better the Fed would have to follow through on its promise to 'normalize' monetary policy. That is, it would stop lending at zero interest rates and stop its $85 billion-per-month QE program. But those hocus-pocus programs - not a genuine recovery - are what keep stock prices going up. What this means is that there is no genuine recovery. It's all the smoke of ZIRP and the mirrors of QE. When the magic show ends...so does the illusion of recovery." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: Statistics show the fall of the US economy

Chinese Tourists with Pockets Full of Dollars

"Chinese tourists have become the highest-spending overseas visitors, reports LaTi. Chinese tourists spend an average of $2,932 per visit to California compared with $1,883 for other overseas visitors, according to the latest statistics by the U.S. Office of Travel and Tourism Industries. 'What we know about Chinese visitors is they don't like to lay on the beaches,' said Ernest Wooden Jr., president of the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board. 'What they do like is shopping.' The outpouring of Chinese money helped set a record for spending by foreign visitors to the U.S. — $168.1 billion in 2012, says LaTi." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChinese Tourists with Pockets Full of Dollars

Nonviolent activist tasered at DOJ while protesting for Wall Street prosecutions

"A woman who became an activist after JPMorgan Chase foreclosed on her home in 2011 was shocked with a Taser and arrested while protesting outside the Department of Justice on Tuesday. In video obtained by Occupy Our Homes Atlanta, large men with assault rifles can be seen surrounding Carmen Pittman before one of the agents shocks her with a stun gun and she falls to the ground. Pittman seems to writhe in agony on the ground for a few moments before a man in a yellow police shirt picks her up. As he restrains her, other officers place her in handcuffs." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNonviolent activist tasered at DOJ while protesting for Wall Street prosecutions

911 Dispatcher Tells Sexual Assault Victim No Cops Will Help Her Due To Budget Cuts

"An Oregon woman was told by a 911 dispatcher that authorities wouldn’t be able be able to help her as her ex-boyfriend broke into her place because of budget cuts. Her call was forwarded to Oregon State Police because of lay-offs at the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office only allows the department to be open Monday through Friday. The sheriff’s department had to cut 23 deputies and the entire major crimes unit after it lost a multi-million dollar federal subsidy, according to Oregon Public Radio. The sheriff’s department even put out a press release warning domestic violence victims to 'consider relocating to an area with adequate law enforcement services.'" Continue reading →

Continue Reading911 Dispatcher Tells Sexual Assault Victim No Cops Will Help Her Due To Budget Cuts

Peter Schiff: The Biggest Loser Wins

"Never in the course of history has a country's economy failed because its currency was too strong. It's a pathology that simply does not exist. On the other hand, the list of those ruined by weak currencies is extensive. The view that a weak currency is desirable is so absurd that it could only have been devised to serve the political agenda of those engineering the descent. A currency war is different from any other kind of conventional war in that the object is to kill oneself. The nation that succeeds in inflicting the most damage on its own citizens wins the war. The only real way to win is not to play." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPeter Schiff: The Biggest Loser Wins