What Could Possibly Go Wrong

Final Score: Dwight Howard 8,000,000 – Jerry Brown 0

"A state nurse getting $331,000 of annual compensation; A county administrator getting $423,000 pensions; A state psychiatrist getting $822,000 of annual compensation; Cops that get $188,000 of annual compensation; A city manager getting $800,000 of annual compensation. But overpaid bureaucrats are not the only problem. California politicians are experts at wasting money in other ways, such as the supposedly high-speed rail boondoggle that was supposed to cost $33 billion and now has a price tag of $100 billion." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFinal Score: Dwight Howard 8,000,000 – Jerry Brown 0

Greenpeace activists break into French nuclear power plant

"Several dozen Greenpeace activists broke into a nuclear plant in southern France early on Monday, unfurling banners against atomic power, the organisation and police said. They hung banners reading 'Tricastin: a nuclear accident' and 'Francois Hollande: president of a catastrophe?' in reference to the French leader, according to Isabelle Philippe, a Greenpeace spokeswoman. Activists from the environmental anti-nuclear group have staged several break-ins in French nuclear plants in recent years in an effort to highlight what they say are dangers of atomic power and to expose security problems at the power stations." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGreenpeace activists break into French nuclear power plant

Bizarre Zimmerman Protests Across the Country : LA, NYC, SF, Pitt.

"Freeway in LA blocked. Times Square shut down. Oakland crowd size increasing. What are these people protesting? Do they want mob rule over court trials? Why isn't mass media releasing the racial make up of the jury? The closest a reporter came to revealing the ethnic background was a CNN reporter who said that it was mixed like her, black, white and Hispanic. Do these protesters think the jury had an agenda? Bizarre. If anything, it appeared the court was trying to push a verdict in the direction of guilty." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBizarre Zimmerman Protests Across the Country : LA, NYC, SF, Pitt.

The Endgame of State/Local Government Pensions

"During the past 30 years of financialized abundance, the benefits and pensions promised to public employees were increased substantially. Public unions are a powerful political force in many states, and in eras of rising tax revenues, it's an easy political decision to increase public employee benefits and pension payouts. The rising stock and bond markets generated huge profits for the public-employee pension funds, enabling them to grow without taxpayer contributions. The effortlessness and persistence of this growth encouraged the mindset that pensions would be paid for via the magic of ever-rising markets." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Endgame of State/Local Government Pensions

A ‘disposition matrix’ system is now generating Obama’s secret kill list

"Since the Obama administration largely shut down the CIA’s rendition programme, choosing instead to dispose of its enemies in drone attacks, those individuals who are being nominated for killing have been discussed at a weekly counter-terrorism meeting at the White House situation room that has become known as Terror Tuesday. Barack Obama, in the chair and wishing to be seen as a restraining influence, agrees the final schedule of names. Once details of these meetings began to emerge it was not long before the media began talking of 'kill lists'. Before long the term disposition matrix was born." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingA ‘disposition matrix’ system is now generating Obama’s secret kill list

Illinois’ failing economic model: more food stamps, fewer jobs

"Between February 2012 and February 2013, Illinois added nearly 200,000 new enrollees to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. In contrast, Illinois added only 68,400 non-farm payroll jobs during that same time period. This disappointing news comes on top of the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics labor release that reported Illinois has the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation. Over the past decade, the numbers look even worse. The state added nearly 1 million residents to food stamp programs, while suffering a net loss of more than 200,000 payroll jobs." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIllinois’ failing economic model: more food stamps, fewer jobs

Oregon ‘Pay It Forward’ Tuition Plan Punishes Graduates’ Success

"If Oregon makes the program mandatory, its colleges will in effect become the only ones in the U.S. that charge students with higher earnings potential more for their education, because they will contribute more over 25 years than everyone else. Motivated students wishing to major in engineering or finance will, quite rationally, opt for private colleges or out-of-state public colleges where they won’t have to subsidize liberal arts majors. A college financing program that requires students to sign away a chunk of their future income would also be unappealing to wealthy families that have the ability to pay cash. They would probably opt for private colleges, too." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOregon ‘Pay It Forward’ Tuition Plan Punishes Graduates’ Success

Fed Puzzle: The Massive Collapse in Money Velocity

"With the velocity of money plummeting, it's clear that something in the fractional reserve banking system is broken -- the money remains trapped in the financial system. Yet another indicator of this is the Fed's Money Multiplier, or an indicator of how the money injected in the banking system is multiplied by lending and economic activity. That's reached new lows recently too, indicating that the fractional reserve system is not living up to expectations. This means that traders with access to large amounts of cheap trading capital can continue to make big bets as the Fed supports their access to capital -- but small businesses can't get the same access to capital." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFed Puzzle: The Massive Collapse in Money Velocity

Ben Bernanke as Easter Bunny: Why the Fed Can’t Prevent the Coming Crash

"If you use a zero percent return, it's easy to figure out how much you need to save. If you want to work for 30 years, and live in retirement for 30 years, then you should save 50 percent. If you want to work for 40 years, and live in retirement for 10 years, you should save 25 percent. And so on. Over the last two decades or so, savings rates have ranged from single digits to slightly negative. In rough terms, zero percent. So as a nation, we have essentially no savings and face very low future returns. The inference is simple: We will need to increase savings drastically." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBen Bernanke as Easter Bunny: Why the Fed Can’t Prevent the Coming Crash

The Fleeting Beauty of Bubbles and Bonds

"The political calculus is simple: the bottom half of households don't vote, don't contribute to political campaigns and don't have enough income to borrow huge sums of money to enrich the banks. They are thus non-entities in the fiscal-monetary project of maintaining the power structure of the Status Quo. All the Status Quo needs to do is borrow enough money to fund social programs that keep the masses passive and silent. Unfortunately for the Powers That Be, the cost of placating the rapidly increasing marginalized populace is rising much faster than tax revenues." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Fleeting Beauty of Bubbles and Bonds