There is no recovery; there will be no recovery; stop listening to the liars and idiots

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Jeff Nielson
Large-scale lay-offs in the U.S. (defined as lay-offs of 50 or greater at one time) hit the highest level since this statistic was created in 1995, according to an article from CNN. This is yet another indication that the U.S. economy is plummeting downward – with absolutely no signs of stability, let alone a “recovery”.

Up to this point, the U.S. government has been very successful in duping market sheep (i.e. the “experts”) through publishing totally fraudulent monthly jobs reports. With the U.S. economy losing roughly 2 million jobs each month (see “U.S. economy to lose 20 MILLION jobs this year”), the government claimed that less than 400,000 jobs were lost in May.

The fact that the unemployment rate continues soaring higher each month, that “mass lay-offs” are at record levels, and with state governments across the U.S. slashing spending to meet budget shortfalls (i.e slashing jobs) conclusively demonstrates that “official” government reports have absolutely no connection to reality.

Even if this rate of decline is now linear (i.e. falling at the same rate each month), this does not imply “stability”. Jobs are being lost in the U.S. at least as fast as during the Great Depression – if not faster. To suggest that this implies “moderation” is simply stupidity, from people who have absolutely no understanding of basic arithmetic.

Combine these employment numbers with falling wages, no access to (further) credit, and a belated desire by Americans to save a little money, and this is nothing short of catastrophic for U.S. retailers (see “The Death of the U.S. Consumer Economy”). This downward spiral of declining (real) spending, and massive job losses is so rapid and self-reinforcing that it would require “stimulus” spending at roughly ten times the level of Obama's puny “stimulus” package to arrest this vicious circle.

At the same time, even with no real “stimulus” for the U.S. economy, the collapse in government revenues, along with massive hand-outs to the U.S. financial crime syndicate have the U.S. on pace to rack-up an annual deficit well in excess of $2 TRILLION. Thus, increasing “stimulus” to an effective level would create deficits three to four times as large as this – guaranteeing immediate hyperinflation in the U.S. (see “Rising U.S. interest rates signal hyperinflationary depression”).

In trying to avoid both hyperinflation and a debt-implosion similar to the (former) Soviet Union, the U.S. government appears certain to create both. Failing to halt the downward spiral of the U.S. economy means exponential increases in government debt across the U.S. - forcing the government to “monetize” huge chunks of debt (i.e. printing new money to pretend to pay its bills). This has always been the first step on the road to hyperinflation, with few governments in history able to reverse this progression once it begins.

Once hyperinflation begins to kick-in in the U.S., no foreign governments will lend the U.S. any money. Would you lend the government of Zimbabwe money – knowing that even if they paid you in full only a month later that you would lose at least 40% to 50% of what you lent (because of rapid currency depreciation)?

The moment that the debt-dependent U.S. is cut off of foreign credit, then the choices are either “Zimbabwe” or immediate, national default. People who refuse to look at “the big picture”, and allow themselves to be lulled into apathy through listening to U.S. economic propaganda are setting themselves up for their own financial destruction.

There is absolutely no comparison to be made between the current economic collapse in the U.S. and any other economic event of the last century – including the “Great Depression”. U.S. housing prices are falling more than three times as fast as during the worst of the Great Depression, while debt levels are at least ten times greater (for both individuals and governments).

The United States currently has more than $57 TRILLION in public and private debt (see “A Tale of Two Economies – U.S. versus China”) – more than every other country in the world combined. In addition, just as tens of millions of U.S. “baby-boomers” begin to retire, the U.S. has close to $100 TRILLION in “unfunded liabilities”, with tens of trillions of those dollars supposedly being paid out to U.S. baby-boomers over the next decade.

With these baby-boomers having totally inadequate retirement savings (see “U.S. Pension Crisis: the $3 TRILLION question”), when the U.S. government is forced to renege on these spending commitments, most of this huge demographic bulge will plunge into poverty – and virtually stop spending. This will be simply one more “nail in the coffin” for the U.S. retail sector.

There is no U.S. “economic recovery”. There will be no U.S. “economic recovery”. Stop listening to the liars and idiots, and protect yourself from what lies ahead.

Nine Countries to Replace US Dollar

Nine countries of ALBA, a leftist bloc conceived by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, met in Bolivia where they vowed to press ahead with a new currency for intra-regional trade to replace the US dollar.

"The document is approved," said Bolivia's President Evo Morales, who is hosting the summit.

The new currency, dubbed the Sucre, would be rolled out beginning in 2010 in a non-paper form. That move echoes the European Union's introduction of the euro precursor, the ECU, an account unit designed to tie down stable exchange rates between member states before the national currencies were scraped.

ALBA's member states are Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominica, Saint Vincent and Antigua and Barbuda. The currency, which was backed in April this year, is named after Jose Antonio de Sucre, who fought for independence from Spain alongside Venezuelan hero Simon Bolivar in the early 19th century.

The bloc also called for the replacement of the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, which arbitrates international contract disputes and has probed a slew of disputes involving ALBA members and western energy firms. Most ALBA members have already withdrawn from the organization, with Ecuador announcing last July that it would pull out of the group.

On Friday Bolivian media reported the country intents to nationalize a electricity distribution firm owned by Spain's Red de Electrica de Espana. It is just the latest in a series of nationalizations in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia.

In May, Venezuela nationalized 74 energy services firms operating in the oil-rich Maracaibo Lake region. Bolivia's Evo Morales has indicated that parts for his country's energy and rail sectors will be nationalized.
Source

"American peasants have got to be the stupidest people in the world today"

Max: "It's not froth, it's fraud. This is an incredible case of accounting fraud and the American peasants have got to be the stupidest people in the world today: they don't mind becoming peasants, they don't mind living like peasants, and if that's the case, we should do nothing to stop them from sliding into a peasant class."

Barney Frank has proposed legislation on financial derivatives that essentially exempts what are called over-the-counter derivatives from most regulation, and it is over-the-counter derivatives that have been a major cause of this crisis. So that’s utterly insane. There’s no conceivable justification for it. And he stacked the hearing. There were nine witnesses; eight of them were from the industry and, of course, testified that they were vital to the world. The ninth witness was the only person who was in the least bit skeptical, and he was promptly gaveled down, unlike the others, by the chair. So it’s not only a farce; they’re willing to have us see that it’s a farce. They are so little afraid of public opinion and outrage that they’re not even taking steps to cover up the cover-up. - William Black, Former bank regulator at the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation.

Thomas Greco’s “The End of Money and the Future of Civilization”: A Review by Richard C. Cook

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Richard C. Cook

It’s too late for anyone to pretend that the U.S. government, whether under President Barack Obama or anyone else, can divert our nation from long-term economic decline. The U.S. is increasingly in a state of political, economic, and moral paralysis, caught as it were between the “rock” of protracted recession and the “hard place” of terminal government debt.

Even if the stock market can be shored up by more government borrowing for “stimulus” spending, it’s a temporary reprieve, because nothing can bring back the consumer purchasing power that was lost when the banks stopped pumping money into the economy through out-of-control mortgage lending. We simply no longer have the job base for people to earn the income they need to live.

The underlying cause of the crisis is in fact the debt-based monetary system, whereby the U.S. ruling class long ago sold out our nation and its people to the international banking cartel of which the Rockefeller and Morgan interests have been the chief representatives for over a century. It was lending on a previously unheard of scale for overpriced assets to people and businesses unable to repay that created the bubbles that burst in 2008, not only in the housing market but also in such areas as commercial real estate, equities, commodities, and derivatives. It was an explosion that reverberated throughout the world.

The Obama administration’s response to the crisis has been to print Treasury bonds both for the financial system bailouts and the sputtering Keynesian stimulus that so far has gone substantially into military infrastructure. This bond bubble is what I have referred to as “Obama’s Last Picture Show.” http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12512

Government debt is fundamentally inflationary. For a generation, the U.S. dollar has been inflating at an increasing rate, with the economy being kept in a growth posture by selling our debt instruments abroad or allowing foreigners holding dollars to purchase property and other assets on our own soil. The website EconomyinCrisis.org reports that in 2007, the most recent year for which data are available, “foreign entities spent $267.8 billion to acquire or establish U.S. businesses.” http://www.economyincrisis.org/articles/show/2801

Foreigners are spending their dollars as fast as possible, because they are now plummeting in value. It’s increasingly clear that sooner rather than later, the dollar will be dumped by foreign purchasers of bonds, particularly China, and possibly even the oil-producing nations.

These nations know full well that bonds denominated in dollars can never be completely repaid, even if the bonds can be rolled over into fresh debt. It’s this dynamic that is dragging the U.S. economy to the cliff, because real economic growth stopped long ago when our manufacturing jobs were exported. This is because most of the growth since Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980 has been only on paper through financial bubbles. This included the dot.com bubble of the Clinton years that blew up in 2000-2001.

Now, after the Treasury bond bubble of 2009, there is nothing left in America to inflate. With so many jobs gone, the American family home was the last thing of value we owned.

So the air is going out of the tires. Americans who are struggling to work for a living are passive spectators as their jobs, savings, health insurance, pensions, and homes continue to erode in value or even disappear. Last Sunday the Washington Post reported a massive crisis in state and local government pensions. Reporter David Cho wrote, “The financial crisis has blown a hole in the rosy forecasts of pension funds that cover teachers, police officers and other government employees, casting into doubt as never before whether these public systems will be able to keep their promises to future generations of retirees.”

So what, if anything, can be done about it?

Well, the first thing an intelligent physician does is diagnose the disease. Thomas Greco, in his new book The End of Money and the Future of Civilization (Chelsea Green: 2009) , outlines the increasingly familiar story of how things got so bad, and he tells it as well as anyone has ever done. His style is precise and sometimes academic. Behind it, though, is a passion for truth and the type of rock-solid integrity that refuses to sugar-coat a very bitter pill.

More than that, Greco writes about how to change what has gone wrong. His credentials as an engineer, college professor, author, and consultant are impeccable. His book is among the most important written in this decade. It is truly a book that can alter the world and, if taken seriously, give large numbers of people a practical way to survive the gathering catastrophe.

But unlike most commentators, what Greco offers is not another phony prescription for what the financiers and government should do for us, whether through “restarting” lending or another round of stimulus spending. Rather it’s what we should do for ourselves, and could do much better, if we understood what to do and if big banking and big government just got out of the way.

As I said, at the root is the monetary system, whose failure cannot be understood without a history lesson. So Greco writes about the struggle between banking and democracy that took place in the 1790s when the ink on our new national constitution was barely dry.

It was Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury, who compromised the new nation, through what he admitted was “corruption,” by giving the wealthy speculators in Revolutionary War bonds the benefit of federally-sponsored redemption and then by establishing the First Bank of the United States. This early drift toward elitist rule was opposed by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and others who figured in the creation of what later became the Democratic Party.

Greco writes: “While Jefferson favored a stronger union than that which emerged under the Articles of Confederation, he was vehemently opposed to the reconstruction of monarchic government on the American continent.” Hamilton had said frankly that the British monarchy was the best system of government known to man. Part of the monarchic system was the Bank of England, which Hamilton copied when setting up the First Bank.

But Jefferson, who repudiated Hamilton’s elitist platform, was elected president in what was then called “The Revolution of 1800.” Congress refused to renew the Bank’s charter by a single vote when it was up for renewal in 1811.

But the Second Bank of the United States was chartered in 1816 due to the government debt left behind from the War of 1812 against Great Britain. Thus was set up what became known as the “Bank War.”

It was President Andrew Jackson who dethroned the bankers from power by pulling government funds out of the Second Bank in 1833. Greco writes that in Jackson’s view: “The ‘Bank War’ was a contest for rulership—would the United States be governed by the people through their elected president and representatives, or by an unelected financial elite through their central bank instrument?”

The modern takeover began in earnest during the Civil War when Congress passed the National Banking Acts in 1863-64 which mandated use of government bonds as bank lending reserves, thereby creating a direct linkage between bank profits and the debt the government was starting to load on the shoulders of taxpayers.

The nation’s fate was sealed with the passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. The deal was that the bankers would control the currency, and thereby the nation’s economy, while the government would be provided with an unlimited amount of inflated dollars to fight its wars.

The bookkeeper’s trick of creating money out of thin air, charging interest for its use, then forcing it down the throats of weaker nations by threat of violence, is what has allowed the Anglo-American empire, since the founding of the Bank of England in 1696, gradually to conquer the world. Though President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law, he saw what that action meant. Greco cites Wilson as writing: “There has come about an extraordinary and very sinister concentration in the control of business in the country….The great monopoly in this country is the monopoly of big credits.”

Among other ill effects, the system has ruined the value of the currency. The inflation caused by large issues of bank-created loans is seized upon by the government which goes along because inflation reduces the cost of its deficits. Investors buy Treasury bonds denominated in Federal Reserve Notes then watch their value evaporate over time. In fact Federal Reserve Notes have lost over 95 percent of their value since they were first introduced.

Moreover, it’s additional inflation caused by bank-generated interest that drives up the costs of goods and services, forcing everyone in the economy to try to defend themselves by raising their prices to the max. Greco spells this out too, which almost every economist in the world, with the exception perhaps of Australia’s James Cumes, overlooks.

Bank interest has other tragic effects. It was high interest rates, for instance, that destroyed the Idaho potato industry. A farmer from that region told me at a conference a few years ago that when interest rates skyrocketed in the early 1980s, he asked the president of one of the Federal Reserve Banks why they did it. The answer was they were “ordered” to raise interest rates by the international banking system.

Make no mistake, it’s the banking system, facilitated by the Fed, not unwary borrowers, who brought on the collapse of 2008.

Now, in 2009, the bankers, mainly those in the U.S., have so shattered the world economy by debt mounted on debt that there may be no reprieve except the creation of a slave society based on rule by the rich over the masses of whatever peons should happen to survive the downturn and its tragic effects on employment, health, the food and water supply, and even our ability to cope with climate change.

The political establishment, expressing itself in pronouncements by organizations like the Council on Foreign Relations, see a future, not of economic democracy or increased financial pluralism, but consolidation of world currencies into a small number overseen at the top by the world’s financial oligarchy. Citing the writings of Benn Steil, the CFR’s Director of International Economics, Greco writes: “The ostensible plan is to reduce global exchange media to three—one each for Europe, the Americas, and Asia. One might reasonably suppose that at a later stage, those three would be combined into one currency also under the control of the global banking elite.”

Greco concludes: “The New World Order is upon us.”

But is it really the end, or is there a new world waiting to be born? Greco thinks so. He speaks of the end of an era when unlimited economic growth fed by massive influxes of debt-based money is no longer sustainable. He writes: “That our global civilization cannot continue on its current path seems evident….But I think our collective consciousness is beginning to change. We are becoming aware of limits and are reaching that part of our evolutionary program that says, ‘Stop!’” More...

U.N. Backs Gaza War Crimes Report

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Richard Boudreaux and Tina Susman

In a vote likely to complicate U.S. efforts to revive Middle East peace talks, the United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday endorsed a report calling on Israel and Hamas to conduct credible investigations of alleged war crimes by their forces or face further international inquiries and possible prosecutions.

The action in Geneva by the 47-nation council was a sharp setback for Israel, which had labored to discredit the month-old U.N. report. The council's vote could force Israel to defend itself for months or perhaps years -- in diplomatic forums, if not criminal tribunals -- as U.N. bodies grapple with highly charged fallout from last winter's conflict in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Although the council embraced a report that condemned both sides, the resolution itself criticized only Israel and was adopted by a wide margin.

For the Obama administration, the decision represents a new obstacle to its goal of negotiations to establish a Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned that an international stamp of approval for the war crimes allegations would prevent Israel from "taking risks" to reach a statehood accord. And the U.S.-backed Palestinian leadership in the West Bank, after first accepting that argument under U.S. pressure, reversed its stand and pushed for Friday's vote.

With only the United States and five European allies objecting, the council, dominated by developing nations, fully endorsed the findings and recommendations of an expert panel led by South African jurist Richard Goldstone that investigated the Gaza conflict.

Twenty-five nations, including Russia and China, voted for the resolution promoted by Arab members, and 16 nations abstained or did not vote. Egyptian Ambassador Hisham Badr, a key supporter, told the council that it "cannot turn a blind eye to the deteriorating human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories."

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the United States voted against the measure out of concern "that it will exacerbate polarization and divisiveness" and undermine special U.S. envoy George J. Mitchell's work to restart peace talks broken off in December. More...

New Mideast Alliances Forming

Wall Street Journal

TV Show Deepens Split Between Israel and Turkey

A war of words ignited by a new Turkish TV series depicting Israeli military atrocities escalated Friday, shaking what is probably Israel's strongest partnership in the Middle East.

The first episode of the series, "Separation," aired Wednesday on the public channel TRT, showed what appeared to be an Israeli soldier gunning down an unarmed Palestinian girl in a cul de sac. Shortly afterward, another soldier shoots a newborn baby.

The images sparked outrage in Israel. Labor unions said they would boycott Turkey as a vacation destination, and Israel summoned Turkey's ambassador Thursday to lodge a protest. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a statement Thursday the series "would not be appropriate in an enemy country and certainly not in a state which maintains diplomatic relations with Israel."

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu responded Friday by criticizing Israel's treatment of Palestinians. He said a recent decision to exclude Israel from planned North Atlantic Treaty Organization exercises in central Turkey was made in response to public outrage in Turkey over Israel's treatment of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.

"While the tragedy in Gaza continues, nobody should expect us to put on military displays of this sort," Mr. Davutoglu said.

As for the TV series, Mr. Davutoglu said: "Turkey is not a country based on censorship."

Officials and analysts in both countries said the split reveals Ankara no longer needs or wants Israel the way it once did.

The two countries have long had strong diplomatic and trade relations, and Turkey has been a substantial buyer of Israeli military hardware. For years, Israeli pilots trained in Turkish airspace. As recently as August, Turkey took part in joint naval exercises with Israel.

But the ties were built in a period when Turkey felt hemmed in on all sides, analysts say. In the 1980s and 1990s, Turkey had poor relations with Iraq and shared with Israel a deep suspicion of Iran. It was also fighting a guerrilla war with Kurdish militants. In 1998, it came close to war with Syria. Turkey was also in conflict with Greece over Cyprus, while then communist Bulgaria and Armenia were historical and Cold War rivals. Ankara needed Israel's military hardware and intelligence sharing.

"In the 1990s, Turkish foreign policy was guided by security issues, and that pushed Turkey closer to Israel," says Kadri Gursel, a columnist for the centrist daily Milliyet.

But under Mr. Davutoglu and his boss, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has worked hard to fix those problems and reintegrate into the region. This month, Turkey signed significant agreements with Armenia, Syria and Iraq.

"There is no need for this [partnership with Israel] anymore," said Huseyin Bagci, professor of International Relations at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara.

Mr. Bagci predicts that Turkey increasingly will look to Italy, France and other suppliers to buy arms, rather than Israel.

The breakdown in relations also appears personal. Mr. Erdogan walked off the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January after clashing with President Shimon Peres of Israel over the conflict in Gaza. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Erdogan was still simmering.

"If you look at Gaza, 1,500 people died, 5,000 people were wounded, infrastructure, the superstructures were all demolished. ... What happened afterwards? There was nothing," said Mr. Erdogan.

Israel and some Turkish analysts see an ideological component to the dispute, noting the Islamist roots of the ruling Justice and Development Party. "We've seen Turkey evolve and change since Erdogan's Islamic party took power," the senior Israeli official said.

Mr. Erdogan, in the interview, insisted his position wasn't driven by identification with Muslim Palestinians, but by the need for honesty and fairness.

Turkish officials insist the relationship is far from dead. "Let's make no mistake. We value a continuation of relations with Israel, but not at any cost," said ruling-party official Suat Kiniklioglu.

Write to Charles Levinson at charles.levinson@wsj.com and Marc Champion at marc.champion@wsj.com

Full-Blown Depression Ahead

CNBC.com
This global recession will turn into a "full-blown depression," Nicu Harajchi, CEO of N1 Asset Management, said Friday, adding that global stimulus hasn't come down to Main Street.

Wall Street is making money, while consumers aren't, Harajchi told CNBC.

"We have seen the G20 coming out with cross border capital injections of $5 trillion this year… But a lot of this money hasn't really come down to Main Street," he said.

"When it comes down to corporate America, corporate Europe or even in Asia, in Japan, we are not seeing Main Street making any money," he said. "Consumers are losing their jobs. They are struggling with their mortgages, with their credit. And we are just seeing this continuing."

The $5 trillion injection is "monetary expansion," according to Harajchi. "At some point, which we believe to be 2010/11, some of the central banks are going to recall some of that money and that will turn from monetary expansion to monetary contraction."

He also said he doesn't see the corporates or the public "being able to pay back that debt."

"We see 2010 becoming a much more risky year than 2009," he said.

Harajchi said unemployment data are "a leading indicator" instead of a lagging indicator.

It is no longer up to the U.S. but more to the rest of the world to decide about the dollar's status as the global reserve currency, Harajchi said.

China and the Gulf countries which have their oil pegged to the dollar "would like to see some other currencies, maybe the euro, playing a more dominant role," he said.

52,000 angry French farmers riot, set fires, stop traffic

ABC's Christophe Schpoliansky reports from Paris:

Angry French farmers blocked the famous Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris early this morning to call attention to the difficulties their sector is going though. Several other French cities were also affected. In Poitiers (western France), farmers dumped about a thousand cubic meters of soil in the city center. French media reported that several hundreds of tractors converged towards the centers of several French cities from north to south, disrupting or stopping traffic on roads and highways. 52,000 protesters took part in the protests nationwide, according to the FNSEA (Fédération Nationale des Exploitants Agricoles), France’s main farmers’ union.

In Paris, about 50 cereal growers set up barriers and dropped bales of hay on the chic Champs-Elysees avenue, next to the posh Fouquet’s restaurant where French President Nicolas Sarkozy celebrated his election in May 2007. Protesters set hay and tires on fire, completely blocking rush-hour traffic in several streets in the area.

“The farming world is dying”, Damien Greffin, president of the “Young Farmers” organization of the Ile-de-France (regrouping Paris and the surrounding departments) told Agence France Presse. “What we’re asking for, it is an increase in the price of raw material” he added, pointing out that a kilogram of wheat is sold 9 centimes these days for a production cost of 14 centimes.

In 2008, French farmers’ income dropped by as much as 20 percent and the situation is not expected to improve this year, according to the French Farm Ministry.

Farmers are asking the government for an emergency plan worth close to $2.1 billion.

“Today, the whole agricultural France is suffering,” Farm Minister Bruno Le Maire told France 2 TV at midday. “I’m currently working , based on the farm revenue for 2009, on the preparation of a global aid plan to the French agriculture”.

President Sarkozy announced in an interview published in Le Figaro newspaper today that he would take “strong initiatives” before the end of October for the farming sector.

Missing Blue Cross Laptop has names and ID's on nearly every practicing physician in the country

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Nothing fishy here, huh.

Bruce Japsen
Tribune

About 800,000 doctors -- nearly every practicing physician in the country -- are being warned that business and personal information such as Social Security numbers, addresses and certain identification numbers may be open for a possible breach after an insurance trade group employee's laptop was stolen from a car in Chicago.

The Chicago-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, a trade group for the nation's Blue Cross health insurance plans, confirmed an employee "broke protocol and transferred to a personal laptop" information that was later stolen in late August.

No patient information was on the database, so concern by consumers having personal health records breached is unwarranted, the association said. And doctors have not reported security breaches. About 16 to 20 percent of the doctors listed in the database have their Social Security numbers as their medical-care provider identification, putting these health professionals at risk for identity theft.

The information transferred to the association employee's personal laptop was from the association's medical care "provider data repository," which includes names, addresses, and provider identification numbers of physicians that are used by insurance companies to pay doctors.

"At this point, we have no evidence that the data was misused," said Jeff Smokler, spokesman for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, which represents 39 Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies that provide health coverage for 100 million Americans. "We think this was a random criminal act. Regardless, we take these kinds of breaches extremely seriously and so we are alerting all doctors in the database."

Doctor groups across the country, including the American Medical Association, have been notifying medical care providers across the country about the potential for a breach.

"The data is used in performing internal matching analyses to compare Blue Cross and Blue Shield provider networks to the networks of other health plans for employer groups," AMA President Dr. James Rohack said in a statement being distributed to physicians this week.

The AMA also said physicians should not worry that the theft of the data was intended to steal doctor identities.

"The data set was stored on a laptop that was stolen from a car, which was one of several cars in the immediate vicinity that were vandalized," Rohack said. "There is no reason to believe that the thief intends to use the data to commit identity theft. However, as a precaution, BCBSA is offering credit monitoring services to those providers whose Social Security number was exposed."

Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich on War and Lies

"I've noticed in the past few months how the mainstream media have conveniently chosen to ignore discussion or debate on this topic. I remember CNN's Anderson Cooper dedicating a special on discussing the release of Paris Hilton some time ago. 100 Iraqi civilians died in one day last month due to a miscalculated US air strike, and none of them gave a shit.

I remember how all the candidates who unequivocally opposed the war in the last elections were sidelined and at times ridiculed. They were labelled "impractical".

I remember that the guy (Ron Paul) who asked for an immediate pull out of our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan received the largest donations from the military. Maybe, our men and women in the military are also impractical.

This is dedicated to every single life that we have lost in this needless and mindless war. This is my protest to "how things are", and my contribution to change them to "how they ought to be".

We will not be swayed by the Government propaganda and be silenced at the expense of being called unpatriotic'."

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism
- Howard Zinn

UK Ins. Co. warns doctors not to administer swine flu vaccine

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Eilish O'Regan

An insurance company has warned 1,000 GPs not to administer the swine flu vaccine. The HSE plans to enlist family doctors to give the swine flu vaccine to patients with pre-existing medical conditions. But an insurance company which covers around 1,000 of the 2,200 to 2,500 GPs in the country advised them not to sign up for the work because of legal indemnity issues.

The HSE has given GPs until today to sign up to give the vaccine to 400,000 of their patients with certain medical conditions from next week. Medisec Ireland, which covers around 1,000 GPs, told their members yesterday not to sign up until all indemnity issues were resolved. GP sources said last night this may lead some doctors who have signed up to withdraw their participation in the programme.

In a letter to the doctors Medisec said it was unclear where a GP would legally stand if they exercised their discretion not to give the vaccine to their patients. There are also unresolved legal issues around the doctors identifying and offering the vaccine to at-risk patients. The company said the Irish Medical Organisation had been trying to negotiate an acceptable resolution to the serious medico/legal issues with the HSE, but had not been successful.

Other concerns relate to the cost of legal representation for doctors who may find themselves before their disciplinary body the Medical Council if they fail to give the vaccine to a patient. They could also have to go before the same body for exercising their clinical judgment not to administer the vaccine to a patient of another doctor who had been referred to them.

Concern

The letter to GPs said that while the administration of the vaccine would be deemed normal work and covered by a doctor's policy, the outstanding issues of concern might not fall into this category due to the amount of work involved and could lead to "adverse indemnity consequences".

It added: "Accordingly, in the circumstances, we do not recommend our members to sign up for the programme until all issues have been resolved."

The other company indemnifying doctors, the Medical Protection Society, is believed to have indicated GPs could go ahead with the vaccinations. The HSE may have to extend today's deadline for more clarification. It plans to publicise the rollout of the vaccine to at-risk patients tomorrow.

Pre-approved Credit Card with APR of 79.9 Percent

Image by liewcf via Flickr

The offer is for a Premier card from First Premier Bank, which is based in South Dakota. On its Web site, First Premier says it is the country's 10th largest issuer of Visa and MasterCard credit cards. The site also says it "focuses on individuals who have less than perfect credit but are actually still creditworthy."

A spokesman with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said interest rate limits on bank cards are set by the individual state and not on a federal level. According to information on the South Dakota Legislative Web site, there is "no maximum or usury restriction." In other words, the individual bank can set its own interest rate limits. Read More...

Deflationists Can Kiss My $$$

Hours cut, wages cut, unemployment up, foreclosures up, credit card interests rates are up, oil up, energy prices up, and now for the 3rd year in a row food prices are up while the dollar goes down. There's no deflation for the working man.

Steep food price increases on way
Reuters reports U.S. food prices will rise by at least 7 percent in 2009 because of higher feed costs for chickens, hogs and cattle, said a group of food-industry economists on Thursday.

It would be the third year in a row that food prices rose faster than the overall U.S. inflation rate. Food inflation is the highest since 1990.

"The sizable increase in the cost of producing food has not been fully passed on to the consumer," said private consultant Bill Lapp. He foresaw food inflation of 7 percent-9 percent in 2009.

During a teleconference, economists from the National Chicken Council and the consultancy Farm Econ said food inflation could be 7 percent-8 percent. The teleconference was arranged by a group of major foodmakers.

Wholesale prices for items used by foodmakers have climbed more rapidly than grocery and restaurant prices, so higher consumer prices are in store, said Lapp.

Although grain prices have declined since summer, this year's corn, wheat and soybean crops are forecast to fetch prices at the farm gate that are double their 2005 levels. Corn and soybeans are major ingredients in feed rations.

"We've been losing money for more than a year," said Bill Roenigk, economist for the Chicken Council, who said producers intend to cut production by as much as 12 percent. "We need to recover these feed costs."

Thomas Elam, head of Farm Econ, said poultry, hog and cattle producers would cut production in coming months because of feed costs, meaning less meat on the retail market but at higher prices.

Menu prices are restaurants up 4.3 percent so far this year, the largest increase since 1990, said Hudson Riehle of the National Restaurant Association. He said one-third of each sales dollar goes to food purchases.

Agriculture Department forecasts also say pricey meats will drive food inflation in 2008.

Americans spend more than $1 trillion a year on groceries, snacks, carry-out foods and restaurant meals. Farmers get 20 cents of the food dollar. The rest goes to processing, labor, transportation and distribution.

Peace Prize Winner Obama to Send 45,000 More Troops to Afghanistan

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

WAR IS PEACE

The BBC is reporting that the Obama administration has told British officials that it will announce a "substantial increase" in U.S. forces for Afghanistan.

The report, attributed to British sources, follows today's announcement that 500 additional British troops would be sent to Afghanistan if certain conditions are met.

According to the BBC's Newsnight program, "the US could next week announce plans to send up to 45,000 extra servicemen and women."

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs dismissed the report, saying President Obama has made no final decision on troop numbers.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged more troops on the condition that Afghan President Hamid Karzai reduce corruption and improve his government's performance, and if they have the necessary equipment, if other NATO allies also bolster their forces and if more Afghan soldiers are trained. About 9,000 U.K. personnel are in Afghanistan now.

On Tuesday, AFP reported:

In an unannounced move, President Barack Obama is dispatching an additional 13,000 US troops to Afghanistan beyond the 21,000 he announced publicly in March, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The additional forces are primarily support forces -- such as engineers, medical personnel, intelligence experts and military police -- the Post said, bringing the total buildup Obama has approved for the war-torn nation to 34,000.

"Obama authorized the whole thing. The only thing you saw announced in a press release was the 21,000," a defense official familiar with the troop-approval process told the daily.

The report, posted on the newspaper's website late Monday, came as Obama weighs a request from the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, for more combat, training and support troops, with several options including one for 40,000 more forces.

Harrods Department Store Selling Gold Bars

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

James Hall
It is renowned for its glitzy clientele and upmarket Knightsbridge location, but shoppers at department store Harrods will from today be able to buy the ultimate luxury accessory – gold bars.

Aimed at private investors, the gold will be sold at the Harrods Bank branch on the lower ground floor of the West London store.

Poor interest rates and falling property prices have left wealthy investors looking for alternative asset classes to put their money into. A weak dollar yesterday pushed the gold price to a record high of $1,072 an ounce.

Chris Hall, Head of Harrods Gold Bullion, said: "The financial environment has kindled a new demand for physical gold among private investors in Britain. For many people this is a new and unfamiliar asset class that demands absolute trust. Until now London has had no well-recognised name serving this market."

"Harrods saw the opportunity to help individuals buy physical gold in a prudent manner."

Mehdi Bakhordar, managing director of PAMP, said: "Harrods stock our full range and are now the only location in London where investors can purchase a 12.5kg gold bar 'off the shelf'."

Harrods, famed for its gold and green livery, has never sold bullion before.

Government Reports Point to Fiscal Doomsday

Martin D Weiss
When our leaders have no awareness of the disastrous consequences of their actions, they can claim ignorance and take no action.

Or when our leaders have no hard evidence as to what might happen in the future, they can at least claim uncertainty.

But when they have full knowledge of an impending disaster ... they have proof of its inevitability in ANY scenario ... and they so declare in their official reports ... but STILL don’t lift a finger to change course ... then they have only one remaining claim:

INSANITY!

And, unfortunately, that’s precisely the situation we’re in today: Three recently released government reports now point to fiscal doomsday for America; and one of the reports, issued by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), says so explicitly:

• The CBO paints two future scenarios for the U.S. budget deficit and the national debt. But it plainly declares that fiscal disaster will strike in EITHER scenario. Furthermore ...
• The CBO states that its fiscal disaster scenarios could cause severe economic declines for decades to come, including hyperinflation and destruction of retirement savings.
• The CBO then proceeds to admit that even its worse-case scenario could be understated by a wide margin due to panic in the financial markets or vicious cycles that are beyond control.
• Separately, in its Flow of Funds Report for the second quarter, the Federal Reserve provides irrefutable data that we are already beginning to witness the first of these consequences in the United States: an unprecedented cut-off of credit to businesses and consumers.
• Meanwhile, the Treasury Department shows that America’s fate remains, as before, in the hands of foreigners, with the U.S. still owing them $7.9 trillion!
• And despite all this, neither Congress nor the Obama Administration have proposed a plan or a timetable for averting these doomsday scenarios. Their sole solution is to issue more bonds, borrow more, and print more without restraint.

That is the epitome of insanity.

Yes, the great government bailouts of 2008 and 2009 have bought us some time ... but they have promptly proceeded to sell us into bondage.

Yes, they have given us safe passage over tough seas ... but only to throw our assets onto the global auction block for the highest bidders.

The one bright spot: Unlike some governments, ours does not conceal the evidence of its folly. Quite the contrary, the proof pours forth from these three government reports in relatively blunt language and unmistakably blatant numbers ...

Report #1 Congressional Budget Office (CBO): The Long-Term Budget Outlook

The CBO opens with a chart predicting the most dramatic surge in government debt of all time.

It shows that even in proportion to the larger size of the U.S. economy today, the government debt has ALREADY surpassed the massive debt loads accumulated during World War I and the Great Depression ... and will soon surpass even the massive debt load of World War II.

“Large budget deficits,” write the authors of the CBO report, would ...

• “Reduce national saving,” leading to ...
• “More borrowing from abroad” and ...
• “Less domestic investment,” which in turn would ...
• “Depress income growth in the United States,” and ...
• “Seriously harm the economy.”

Worse, on page 14, the CBO warns that:

• “Lenders may become concerned about the financial solvency of the government and ...
• “Demand higher interest rates to compensate for the increasing riskiness of holding government debt.” Plus ...
• “Both foreign and domestic lenders may not provide enough funds for the government to meet its obligations.”

The magnitude of the problem cannot be underestimated. The CBO declares on page 15 that:

• “The systematic widening of budget shortfalls projected under CBO’s long-term scenarios has never been observed in U.S. history” and ...
• It will also be larger than the debt accumulations of any other industrialized nation in the post-World War II period, including Belgium and Italy, the two worst cases of all.

But the CBO admits that even these frightening projections may be grossly understated because:

• “The analysis omitted the pressures that a rising ratio of debt to GDP would have on real interest rates and economic growth.”
• “The growth of debt would lead to a vicious cycle in which the government had to issue ever-larger amounts of debt in order to pay ever-higher interest charges.”
• “More government borrowing would drain the nation’s pool of savings, reducing investment” and ...
• “Capital would probably flee the United States, further reducing investment.”

But none of these are factored into the analysis. On page 17 of its report, the CBO writes ...

“The analysis ... does not incorporate the financial markets’ reactions to a fiscal crisis and the actions that the government would adopt to resolve such a crisis. Because [our] textbook growth model is not forward-looking, the analysis assumes that people will not anticipate the sustainability issues facing the federal budget; as a result, the model predicts only a gradual change in the economy as federal debt rises.

“In actuality, the economic effects of rapidly growing debt would probably be much more disorderly as investors’ confidence in the nation’s fiscal solvency began to erode. If foreign investors anticipated an economic crisis, they might significantly reduce their purchases of U.S. securities, causing the exchange value of the dollar to plunge, interest rates to climb, and consumer prices to shoot up.(Bolding is mine.)

Report #2 U.S. Federal Reserve: Flow of Funds Accounts of the United States

The Fed’s data on page 12 tells it all: The impact on the U.S. credit markets is not just a future scenario. It’s happening right now.

Yes, the government is getting its money to finance its exploding deficits (for now). But it’s hogging all the available supplies, while American businesses and average consumers are getting shut out or even shoved out.

Specifically ...

• In the first half of last year, the U.S. Treasury raised funds at the annual pace of $411 billion in the first quarter and $310 billion in the second quarter.
• But if you think that was a lot, consider this: THIS year, the Treasury has stepped up its pace of borrowing to annual rates of $1.443 TRILLION in the first quarter and $1.896 TRILLION in the second quarter. That’s 3.5 times and over SIX TIMES MORE than last year’s, respectively.

Meanwhile, the private sector is getting killed ...

• Last year, banks provided new credit at the annual pace of $472.4 billion in the first quarter and $86.7 billion in the second. This year, they’re not providing ANY new credit — they’re actually LIQUIDATING loans at the rate of $857.2 billion in the first quarter and $931.3 billion in the second. So if you’re running a business, you may want to think twice before asking your bank for more money. Instead, they may decide to TAKE BACK the money they’ve already loaned you!
• Ditto for mortgages. Last year, mortgages were being created at the annual clip of $522.5 billion and $124 billion in the first and second quarters, respectively. This year, on a net basis, mortgages haven’t been created at all. Quite the contrary, the Fed reports that, on a net basis, they’ve been liquidated at an annual pace of $39.3 billion in the first quarter and $239.5 billion in the second.
• Getting cash out of credit cards and other consumer credit is even tougher. Last year, folks were able to add to their consumer credit at annual rates of $115 billion and $105 billion in the first two quarters. This year, in contrast, they’ve been forced to CUT back on their credit at annual rates of $95.3 billion in the first quarter ... and at an even faster pace in the second quarter — $166.8 billion.

Never before in my lifetime have I witnessed a more severe case of crowding out in the credit markets!

And never before has the CBO been so right in its forecasts of fiscal doomsday: One of its dire forecasts was already coming true even before it issued its report.

Report #3 U.S. Treasury Department: Treasury Bulletin

Each and every month, the Treasury reminds us of the single fact that no one in the Treasury wants to face:

The U.S. is deep in debt to the rest of the world, and on page 48, it provides the evidence: total liabilities to foreigners of $7,898,435 million (nearly $7.9 trillion)!

This isn’t a new record. It was actually slightly more last year. But the fact is NOTHING has been done to reduce our debt to foreigners. Quite the contrary, it is the deliberate policy of our government to pile up more — to sell foreign investors and central banks on the idea that they must continue to lend us money.

The fact that this could potentially put our nation into deeper jeopardy is overlooked. And the dire forecast by the CBO that foreign investors might pull the plug is pooh-poohed.

IMF Official Gunned Down

Image by Cosmic Smudge via Flickr

An IMF official, Ashoka Mody, was gunned down in front of his home and is in critical condition. If this were a professional hit, Ashoka Mody would be dead. The Police haven't ruled out random robbery, but I don't believe in coincidences.

Mody also worked for the World Bank and wrote op-ed pieces on Hungary, Lithuania and Estonia. Recent leaked reports indicated Sweden is bracing for a full-blown economic and political "breakdown" in Latvia.

"The Svenska Dagbladet newspaper said Sweden's finance minister Anders Borg had told banks secretly that Latvia's political order was unravelling, advising them to prepare for the collapse of Latvia's rescue talks. Latvia has failed to deliver draconian spending cuts agreed to secure the next tranche of its €7.5bn (£6.85bn) bail-out from the EU, the International Monetary Fund, and Sweden, balking at 20pc cuts in pensions and a further 15pc cut in public wages."

Bloomberg reports Ashoka Mody, an assistant director of the International Monetary Fund’s European department, was in critical condition today after he was shot in the garage of his Bethesda, Maryland home last night, police said.

Mody, an economist originally from India, has worked at the IMF for eight years and is mission chief to Germany and Ireland, spokeswoman Jennifer Ann Beckman said in an interview.

“He remains hospitalized and is in critical condition,” Captain Paul Starks, a spokesman for the Montgomery County Police in Rockville, Maryland, said in an interview. “The suspect remains outstanding. We’re looking at a lot of possible different motives at this point,” he said. “It could have been an attempted robbery and it could have been something worse.”

Police are looking for a man who was wearing a mask and was inside Mody’s garage when the IMF official arrived in his car, Fox News reported today. Mody, 53, was shot while still inside the car, Fox News said.

The IMF’s Beckman said she didn’t know whether Mody’s current position involves work on other European countries. The IMF Web site shows that in 2006 and 2007, he wrote op-ed pieces or letters to the editor on countries such as Hungary, Lithuania and Estonia. Before joining the IMF, Beckman said, Mody worked at the World Bank.

Banks Raiding Accounts to Pay Debts

Image via Wikipedia

Lindsey Rogerson
An increasing number of hard-pressed Scots, struggling with debt repayments, are finding themselves left without money to pay their rent, heat their homes, or even buy food, because their bank is snatching wage and benefit payments from their current accounts without warning.

Money Advice Scotland and Citizens Advice Scotland both confirmed to The Herald that they have seen a considerable rise in the number of their clients being left in extreme financial hardship as a result of set-off. This little known practice gives banks the right to take money without warning from a customer’s account if they fall behind with repayments elsewhere within the same banking group, such as those on a credit card or loan account.

Yvonne MacDermid, chief executive of Money Advice Scotland, said: “We have seen an increase in this [practice] and I think we will see more of this, especially as banks can’t bring in so much money through [bank] charges etc.”

The only way to stop a bank using set-off is to ensure that current account, savings account, credit card and personal loans are all held with separate institutions. However, it is often not possible for indebted consumers to switch banks. Indeed a CAS bureau in the North of Scotland had one client who was threatened with court action by her bank for attempting to move her current account to another bank. This threat was issued after the bank had taken £400 from her account without warning, leaving her with no money to live on.

Kaliani Lyle, chief executive of Citizens Advice Scotland, said: “While setting-off is legal, it can place severe hardship on a client if their bank uses all the wages or benefits that are put into an account to pay towards other commitments. And, as ever, the people who are most vulnerable to this are those who are struggling on the lowest incomes to begin with.

“If someone is struggling with debt, it’s not in anyone’s interest – including the bank’s - to put the client into even deeper financial trouble. We would ask all banks to look very closely at their procedures in relation to setting-off, and to be as flexible as possible – taking clients’ individual circumstances into consideration.”

However, questions have now been raised, by consumer groups, as to whether banks using set-off are in fact breaching their own voluntary code of practice. In many cases money is been snatched from accounts by banks, less than two weeks after a payment has been missed and just days before direct debits for mortgage, council tax and utilities bills are set to come out of a customer’s account. The guidance on the Banking Code, to which all UK banks are supposed to adhere, appears to forbid this.

It says that banks “should acknowledge that income should only be used to repay ‘non-priority’ debts once provision has been made for any ‘priority’ debts. The subscriber [bank] should leave the customer with sufficient money for reasonable day-to-day expenses”.

A missed payment on a credit card or unsecured personal loan is not a “priority debt”. The Banking Code Standards Board is currently investigating 12 UK banks over their approach to set-off, after a catalogue of suspected breaches was sent to it by consumer groups. One such case involved a client at an East of Scotland CAB whose bank moved all his part-time wages and benefits from his account to go towards arrears on a personal loan. This action left the client in financial hardship, with no access to funds for himself or his family. On the face of it this appears to be a cut and dried breach of the Banking Code.

However, the issue of how and when set-off is applied has yet to be resolved and the Banking Code Board will cease to exist at the end of this month when responsibility for bank accounts passes to the Financial Services Authority. The FSA told The Herald it had not written a specific rule which would prevent banks taking money from customer accounts via set-off without prior written notice as it insists they must do in the case of bank charges. However, a spokesperson said that they believed notifying customers about set-off would be covered under its more general “appropriate information“ rule.

“From 1 November the appropriate information rule will apply covering pre-sale, to the sale itself and post-sale. This means that even if a customer has an existing contract, the firm must continue to provide information to enable that customer to make ongoing decisions on an informed basis.”

In addition the regulator said any bank taking money which left a customer unable to meet priority debts or buy food could be held accountable under its treating customers fairly principle, pointing out that it expected banks to be every bit as thorough in identifying financial hardship cases with regard to set-off as it was with regard to the bank charge waiver.

FBI: new biometrics system will include DNA, 3-D facial imaging, palm prints, voice scans

Image by Michael Heilemann via Flickr

Ellen Messmer
The FBI plans to migrate from its IAFIS fingerprint database to a new biometrics system that will include DNA records, 3-D facial imaging, palm prints and voice scans.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is expanding beyond its traditional fingerprint-focused collection practices to develop a new biometrics system that will include DNA records, 3-D facial imaging, palm prints and voice scans, blended to create what's known as "multi-modal biometrics."

Slideshow: The changing face of biometricsHow the Defense Department might institutionalize war-time biometrics

"The FBI today is announcing a rapid DNA initiative," said Louis Grever, executive assistant director of the FBI's science and technology branch, during his keynote presentation at the Biometric Consortium Conference in Tampa.

The FBI plans to begin migrating from its IAFIS database, established in the mid-1990s to hold its vast fingerprint data, to a next-generation system that's expected to be in prototype early next year. This multi-modal NGI biometrics database system will hold DNA records and more.

Grever said that fingerprints and DNA appear to be the most mature and searchable biometrics possibilities, but the FBI is working to include iris-scan records among newer biometrics technologies to identify criminals and terrorists. The plan is to share this data with authorized U.S. and international investigative partners, as the agency does today.

The FBI's current IAFIS database remains a workhouse; it processes about 200,000 daily transactions from its 370 million 10-fingerprint records, and it just crossed the 250 million transaction mark.

The next-generation FBI database system is under design by MorphoTrak and is expected to include DNA, iris scans, advanced 3-D facial imaging and voice scans among its multi-modal biometrics. Lower turnaround times for delivering information over wide-area networks are planned. The goal is to drop from a roughly two-hour response time for IAFIS urgent requests to less than 10 minutes.

But FBI officials acknowledged there's still a lot of research and development that needs to be done to reach its NGI goals. One goal is to develop a rapid DNA analysis method that would provide DNA analysis in less than an hour, as opposed to several hours or even days. The FBI is cosponsoring research with the Department of Defense, which has a similar goal.

Kevin Reid, section chief for the biometrics service section at the FBI, said the FBI also wants to establish a service-oriented architecture for NGI, but it's not clear when this would be in place to provide services related to biometrics information-sharing.

The FBI is already moving into new areas, including setting up a palm-print repository and searchable databases for scars, marks and tattoos that it will be collecting.

The FBI, under the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005, is now allowed to collect reference-sample DNA material for biometrics analysis purposes at the time of booking, Grever said. "DNA has become a powerful and timely tool," said Grever, adding there are no "privacy or civil liberties issues beyond those associated with fingerprints."

Jim Rogers - Gold Will Hit $2000

Image via Wikipedia

Aaron Task

Famed investor Jim Rogers is "quite sure gold will go over $2000 per ounce during this bull market."

Rogers' confidence gold will continue to rally stems from a view the U.S. dollar is on its way to losing status as the world's reserve currency.

"Is it going to happen? Yes," Rogers says. "I don't like saying it [and] I'm extremely worried about it but we have to deal with the facts. America is not getting better [and] the dollar is going to be replaced just like pound sterling [was]."

Rogers didn't offer a timetable, and it's likely gold would exceed $2000 per ounce if the dollar were to lose its reserve status.

Still, "I wouldn't buy gold today," Rogers says. "I think I'll make more money in other commodities, which are cheaper," as discussed in more detail here.

Among many others, Rogers is "worried about the fact the U.S. government is printing huge amounts, spending gigantic amounts of money it doesn't have," the investor and author says. "People are very worried [and] skeptical about paper money [and] looking for places to protect themselves. The best way is to buy real assets. [That] has always protected one during currency turmoil, and it will again."

Coroners Report Spike in Unclaimed Bodies

Katie Zezima with the The New York Times reports:
Coroners and medical examiners across the country are reporting spikes in the number of unclaimed bodies and indigent burials, with states, counties and private funeral homes having to foot the bill when families cannot.

The increase comes as governments short on cash are cutting other social service programs, with some municipalities dipping into emergency and reserve funds to help cover the costs of burials or cremations.

Oregon, for example, has seen a 50 percent increase in the number of unclaimed bodies over the past few years, the majority left by families who say they cannot afford services. “There are more people in our cooler for a longer period of time,” said Dr. Karen Gunson, the state’s medical examiner. “It’s not that we’re not finding families, but that the families are having a harder time coming up with funds to cover burial or cremation costs.”

About a dozen states now subsidize the burial or cremation of unclaimed bodies, including Illinois, Massachusetts, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Most of the state programs provide disposition services to people on Medicaid, a cost that has grown along with Medicaid rolls.

Financing in Oregon comes from fees paid to register the deaths with the state. The state legislature in June voted to raise the filing fee for death certificates to $20 from $7, to help offset the increased costs of state cremations, which cost $450.

“I’ve been here for 24 years, and I can’t remember something like this happening before,” Dr. Gunson said.

Already in 2009, Wisconsin has paid for 15 percent more cremations than it did last year, as the number of Medicaid recipients grew by more than 95,000 people since the end of January, said Stephanie Smiley, a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

In Illinois, Gov. Pat Quinn tried to end the state’s indigent burial program this year, shifting the financing to counties and funeral homes, but the state eventually found $12 million to continue the program when funeral directors balked.

The majority of burials and cremations, however, are handled on the city, county, town or township level, an added economic stress as many places face down wide budget gaps.

Boone County, Mo., hit its $3,000 burial budget cap last month, and took $1,500 out of a reserve fund to cover the rest of the year. While the sum is relatively low, it comes as the county is facing a $2 million budget shortfall, tax collections are down 5 percent and the number of residents needing help is expected to grow.

“We’ve had a significant increase in unemployment, wages are dropping, industrial manufacturing jobs go away and companies scaled back or even closed their doors,” said Skip Elkin, the county commissioner. “But we feel an obligation to help families who don’t have any assets.”

The medical examiner of Wayne County, Mich., Dr. Carl Schmidt, bought a refrigerated truck after the morgue ran out of space. The truck, which holds 35 bodies, is currently full, Dr. Schmidt said. “We’ll buy another truck if we have to,” he said.

Many places are turning to cremation, which averages a third to half the price of a burial. However, they will accommodate families’ requests for burial.

Clyde Gibbs, the chief medical examiner in Chapel Hill, N.C., said the office typically averaged 25 to 30 unclaimed bodies each year. At the end of the 2008 fiscal year there were at least 60, Dr. Gibbs said. The office cremates about three-quarters of the remains, and scatters the ashes at sea every few years.

In Tennessee, medical examiner and coroners’ offices donate unclaimed remains to the Forensic Anthropological Research Center, known as the “Body Farm,” where students study decomposition at the University of Tennessee. The facility had to briefly halt donations because it had received so many this year, said its spokesman, Jay Mayfield.

The increase in indigent burials and cremations is also taking a toll on funeral homes, which are losing money as more people choose cremation over burial. In 2003, 29.5 percent of remains were cremated; by 2008 the number had grown to 36 percent, according to the Cremation Association of North America, and it is expected to soar to 46 percent by 2015, according to the association’s projection of current trends.

Don Catchen, owner of Don Catchen & Son Funeral Homes in Elsmere, Ky., who handles cremations of the poor in Kenton County, said the $831 county reimbursement for cremations was “just enough to cover the cost of what I do — I donate my time.”

In Florida, where counties switched to cremation a few years ago to save on costs, Prudencio Vallejo, general manager of the Unclaimed Bodies Unit of the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner’s Office, said cremations were $425, compared with $1,500 for a burial. They have risen about 10 percent this year, Mr. Vallejo said.

“Most people, the first thing that they say is ‘We wouldn’t be coming to you if we could afford to do it ourselves,’ ” he said.

Broward County, Fla., paid for the cremation of Renata Richardson’s daughter, Jazmyn Rose, who was born stillborn on Sept. 25, 2008. Ms. Richardson, 26, lost her job at an advertising agency in July and could not afford to pay.

The county spent about $1,000 on a cremation and pink urn, engraved with the baby’s birth and death date, and a Bible passage. It now sits in the bassinette where she was to sleep.

“I was strapped for cash, I was in mourning, and I didn’t know what they were going to do with her,” Ms. Richardson, of Davie, Fla., said. “I was honored that they went that far to help me.”

More airport detection: Move the wrong muscle and you don't fly

Mike Smith writes:

Nervous flyers, beware: a Department of Homeland Security-funded project is investigating whether Wii Fit Balance Boards might be good ways to detect signs of tension or unease in airport security lines.

The next step in the War on Terrorism?

As somewhere over 20 million Wii Fit owners know, the Balance Board can detect your precise balance point, making it a perfect keep-fit tool -- but the Future Attribute Screening Technology project hopes detecting physiological signs -- including rapid shifts in balance -- will help identify passengers who may have hostile intentions.

"Researchers took a Wii balance board...and altered it to show how someone's weight shifts. Studies are now under way to determine whether there is a level of fidgeting that would suggest the need for secondary screening," CNN said.

The Balance Board is just one of a suite of sensors the Boston-based project is trialing; others include eye trackers and devices that record respiratory and heart rates. Researchers say their goal is to have a system ready for field tests in 2011.

Canadian study finds seasonal flu shot doubles risk of swine flu

Latest flu vaccine curveball comes from Canada
JO CIAVAGLIA

Bucks County Courier TimesLocal doctors are taking a wait-and-see attitude regarding an unpublished - but already controversial - Canadian study that reportedly finds a seasonal flu shot may make people two times more likely to contract the 2009 H1N1 swine flu virus.

But some also worry such medical studies could only confuse the public more, resulting in panic and distrust in vaccine programs, thereby risking lives.

"It's a concern because we don't want to send mixed messages. We need to be unified in our approach to protect people's health," said Dr. Rob Danoff, head of family practice residency programs at Aria Health Systems, which has a Bucks County campus in Falls.

"It's very confusing. We need to await the official statement of the CDC."

The Canadian study is under peer review, a process also used in the United States to ensure that data is unbiased and properly interpreted before publication in a scientific journal. ut its early findings prompted most Canadian provincial governments to suspend or limit their annual winter vaccine programs, according to Canadian news reports.

The study is co-authored by researchers from the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion and Laval University in Quebec, according to reports.

Few people have seen the data, and some health experts are skeptical.

The World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aren't recommending that annual flu vaccinations be postponed. Public health officials in the United States, Australia and other European countries say their data doesn't show such a link between the two flu vaccines.

Canadian government officials say the new study was only one factor in their decision to suspend seasonal flu shots for people under age 65; another reason is the belief H1N1 will be the dominate flu strain in the country this winter as it was in most Southern hemisphere during their winter.

Both Canada and the United States launched seasonal flu vaccine programs earlier than usual this year to prevent overwhelming health care providers with simultaneous demands for both H1N1 and annual flu vaccines.

For every study that finds a medical intervention works, there is likely one that will contradict it, said Dr. David Damsker, director of the Bucks County Health Department.

Damsker pointed to another study recently published in the British Medical Journal that found the seasonal flu vaccine may offer some protection against H1N1 flu, though it shouldn't replace the new vaccine.

"This is why general medicine is difficult at times," he added. "You read one day that coffee causes Parkinson's disease and the next day a study says it prevents Parkinson's disease."

People should not make decisions based on a single study without thoroughly investigating other available research and speaking with medical professionals, Damsker warned.

"In Bucks County we've been preaching the same thing for the last five months. We're not trying to be led astray by one study here and there," he added. "It concerns me that every time a story comes out, people don't get all the information and make a quick decision based on the CNN ticker."

Aria's Danoff also says he will continue to recommend patients get the seasonal flu vaccine for now.

People who have already gotten their annual flu shot shouldn't worry about swine flu, he added. "For most it's a mild virus," he added. "I would not be alarmed."

The 2009 H1N1 virus is circulating and experts anticipate that 40 percent to 50 percent of the U.S. population will be infected, he noted.

What Danoff does worry about, though, is that conflicting data involving the flu vaccines could result in falling public confidence in the medical community.

"They're going to say, who can we believe?"